Chapter One
Jim Kirk didn't need a computer to tell him the ice-world Spock had marooned him on was unsafe, that was just a given. He could have sworn he was the only living thing on this pathetic excuse for an M-Class planet, but that turned out to be a wrong assumption when Jim stumbled across an ice-creature attacking something else. What madness drove him, Jim had no idea, but he yelled and hollered and waved his arms to get the thing's attention. It turned on him and Jim gulped.
"Oh shit." It was big, really big. Jim turned around and ran. He didn't have much of a head-start and wasn't sure if he was supposed to be grateful when a weird thing, he positively identified a drakoulias in the two seconds he had to get out of the way, went at it with the thing following him. While the drakoulias duked it out with the other thing, whatever it was, Jim scrambled across the ice and practically tripped over a body. It took him a minute to realize the other person was only unconscious, and hurt bad. Jim, thinking on his feet and really having no desire to become anything's next meal, pulled a pistol from the other man's belt, attached a flare-tip, and prayed to whatever god took mercy on the foolish as he pulled the trigger. The flare arched high and burst into a shower of red and orange sparks.
The drakoulias must have won the fight, it was coming back. Jim, on the verge of sheer panic, scrambled to his feet and drew his phaser, setting the weapon to kill. Taking aim, he said another prayer and fired three shots. It took four before the damn thing would go down, and Jim sank to his knees, gasping for breathe.
"Oh god I'm fucked." he looked over his shoulder. He crawled over to the other boy, he was definitely Human, and collapsed, "Please let there be someone out here." Jim had enough common sense to realize the other kid could freeze to death before help showed up, and went to the slain creature he'd apparently been riding, digging through the gear for a tent, blankets, something to use. He also had to move the kid, they were right between three dead things that were sure to attract other hungry things. Jim dragged the other kid across the ice until he was sure they would be safe, and pitched camp. He got a storm-shelter up, thanking the Academy for offering classes on surviving on nothing at all, a handful of gear if you were lucky to have any. Once he had the tent up, Jim covered the other boy with thermal-blankets after removing as much of his heavy snow-gear as was feasible. He also nailed him a shot of adrenaline and something else to ward off infection, the claw-marks on his face looked nasty. The kid was slow coming around, so Jim dug out a dermal regenerator and cleaned up a little. Once Jim had done everything he reasonably could, and it wasn't much, he settled in and watched for some sign of life. The kid was a lot like him, no slow return to conscious just get it all at once.
"Ngh! Huh!" The kid sat bolt upright, eyes wild and unfocused, and Jim just smiled.
"Ah, he lives. Welcome back to the hellish world of the living, brother." He folded his arms over his knees and waited for the kid to get his head on straight, he knew exactly how he was feeling.
"W-where are we?"
"I'm sorry to say we're both still trapped on this little frozen hell, I'm not quite sure what it's called, and this is your tent. Rather nice, actually, kinda cozy considering the blizzard howling outside."
"Oh." The kid turned to him and Jim gulped. Whoa, that was a little weird. Just a tad like looking at a mirror, a warped mirror. Huh?
"Uhh…hmm." Jim rubbed the back of his neck, "That's interesting. What's your name?"
"I'm, uh, Luke Skywalker. Who are you?"
"Jim Kirk. Uh, full name's James T."
"Where did you come from?"
"Earth. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you've never heard of it?"
"No, I haven't. What kind of place is Earth?"
"A lot nicer than wherever we are right now. Warmer."
"It sounds like a nice place. Did you grow up there?"
"Yeah, it's home enough. Not that…well, where I came from, I didn't leave behind a whole lot worth missing." Jim shrugged. Luke, his odd doppelganger, frowned.
"I know how that feels. You leave everything behind and try not to think about it ever again."
"I wouldn't say that, but…yeah. I sure don't want to go back to Iowa. Where'd you come from?"
"Tatooine."
"Never heard of it."
"I guess we're even." Luke smiled, it was Jim's smile. Same smile, same blue eyes, same blonde hair. Was this kid his long-lost twin brother or something? Jim sighed and pulled out the tri-corder, wondering if he was allowed to feel this much relief that everything came back normal.
"What's that?"
"This? It's a tri-corder, a bio-scanner. I couldn't tell you exactly what it does, I'm not a doctor."
"Your technology is different."
"It should be." Jim looked up, "I'm thinking I belong to a different reality from yours, or at the least a different galaxy. Things have been real screwy the last twenty-four hours, that wouldn't surprise me."
"Do you really think that?"
"I don't know what else it would be. You've never heard of Earth, I've never heard of Tatooine, and despite the fact I clearly saw a drakoulias, I don't think this is Delta Vega."
"No. This is Hoth."
"Like I said. Not Delta Vega, which makes it hard for me to get back where I need to go." Jim sighed and tossed aside the tri-corder, "Damn it." It got quiet in the tent, and when he looked, Jim saw that Luke had drifted off to sleep. He smiled and pulled out extra blankets, using his heavy jacket for padding. The wind howling outside the tent was background noise as Jim drifted off to sleep, following Luke's example.