Picard makes his way down in to the chasm where the bridge had collapsed. Digging through the metal wreckage and debris, he uncovers Kirk, laying broken among the debris. He's bloody and faint and he knows he doesn't have much time left.
This strikes a twisted amusement through his core. Almost as if his soul was gathered up in to one triumphant smirk, mocking him. He always knew he'd be alone, felt it deep within himself. What a bittersweet victory. And, while he always knew he'd be alone, that didn't mean he wanted to be. But, with Spock missing in action and Bones off retired somewhere, he didn't have much of a choice.
"Did we... make a difference?"
"Oh yes," Picard says, "we did make a difference. Thank you."
Kirk lifts his eyebrows and makes his best attempt at a shrug. "Th'least I could do," he says, "for the Captain of the Enterprise." Picard gives him a soft look, not quite knowing how to respond. Kirk gives a soft "oh" noise, furrowing his brow slightly. A strange tugging sensation had started in his lower back and slowly trickled it's way through his legs and body. "Oh my..."
...and he was gone. Literally, he had vanished before Jean-Luc's very eyes. "Kirk? Kirk!"
STSTST
When Jim had let the blackness envelop him, he sure as hell didn't think he would wake up from it. So, when he did wake up, gasping on a cot and surrounded by thin, regulation blankets, his first thought was "Well this isn't right."
He attempted to sit up, frowning as something wrapped around his torso uncomfortably prevented him from sitting in the tired slouch he wanted to. Gingerly, he tried to stretch his arms above his head, only to jump out of his skin when a thick Scottish accent warned, "Ah wooldn't do tha' if ah were you. You'll ruin yer stitches."
Kirk cautiously turned his head to the source of the voice. It was a younger looking man wearing a thick jacket and a beanie.
"Would ya mind tellin' me who ya are and why ya appeared bloody and half dead on my floor?"
STSTST
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..." The blue hologram stops singing and grins directly at the camera. Spock gives it a slight smile in return, only to stop himself. It is illogical to smile at holograms. "I know,I know," he adopts a voice much like Spock's own, "it's illogical to celebrate something you had nothing to do with, but I haven't had the chance to congratulate you on your appointment to the ambassadorship so I thought I'd seize the occasion..." The projected man pauses, face falling almost imperceptibly, but Spock noticed. Oh, had he noticed.
"Bravo, Spock," the man continues in the same chipper tone, his face brightening falsely. "They tell me your first mission may take you away for awhile, so I'll be the first to wish you luck... and to say... I miss you, old friend."
"And I, you, Jim," Spock whispered, despite the lack of logic behind the action.
"I suppose," the holographic Jim mused, "I suppose I'd always imagined us... outgrowing Starfleet together. Watching life swing us into our Emeritus years... I look around at the new cadets now and can't help thinking... has it really been so long? Wasn't it only yesterday," he looks down to the ground, scuffing his shoes before looking directly at Spock, "we stepped on to the Enterprise as boys? Naive boys? That I had to prove to the crew I deserved command... and their respect?"
"I know what you'd say- 'It's their turn now, Jim...' And of course you're right..." he looks down again, sheepishly this time, "but it got me thinking; Who's to say we can't go one more round?" He looks up again, grinning, and making Spock's heart clench. "By the last tally, only twenty five percent of the galaxy's been chartered... I'd call that negligent. Criminal even- an invitation. Y-" he breaks off to clear his throat, sounding hoarse for a moment. "You once said being a starship captain was my first, best destiny... but if that's true, then yours is to be by my side." He looks Spock in the eye, serious-faced. "If there's any true logic to the universe... we'll end up on that bridge again someday. Admit it, Spock," he says, grinning at him. "For people like us, the journey itself... is home."
The transmission cuts off, leaving Spock staring hollowly at the space it took up. "Oh, Jim," he whispers, wishing he could see his old friend, his T'hy'la once more.
STSTST
"I'm sorry?" Kirk spluttered. Where the hell was he? He was being crushed to death by a broken bridge not 5 minutes ago. "Where am I? Who are you?"
The man moved closer to him, standing now three feet away. "Montgomery Scott, now will ya please tell me why-"
"Montgomery Scott?" Kirk exclaimed. "But that's... impossible. You must be an imposter." He immediately sets himself on guard, wrapping one arm aroud his bandaged torso as protection and using the other to reach for a phaser that wasn't there.
Scott takes the phaser out from his back pocket and twirls it around his finger. "Ya won't be needin' it, honest. If ah was goin' ta hurt you, ah wouldn'a fixed up yer injuries, now, would I?" He sets the phaser on the small bedside cabinet. "Now, will ya please jus' tell me who ya are?"
Kirk looks genuinely confused. "Weren't you the one that brought me here?"
"Why would ah bring someone ah dinna even know here?"
"Listen, Mr. Scott, who I don't believe you are, by the way, one moment I was dying underneath a collapsed bridge, the next I wake up here with you looking down at me. I want some answers!"
"Well ah'd say yer lucky. Ah saved yer life! But ah honestly dinna know how ya got here. And, for tha las' time, who are ya?"
Kirk decided he'd never get answers. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. "I'm Admiral James T. Kirk, of the United Federation of Planets." Scott gave him a blank look. "Former Captain of the USS Enterprise?" Another blank look. "First Officer Spock?" Nothing. "Well I get that you're young, but even I thought that we'd at least be noteworthy in history lessons-"
"Look, Mister- Admiral- Kirk, with all due respect, ah have no clue who ya are. All ah know is that ya appeared in my workshop- which is in tha middle of bloody nowhere, Delta vega, mind you- bleedin' half ta death, so ah patched ya up as best ah could. Ah'm an engineer, not a bleedin' surgeon. Who is he talking to out there?" A strange alien voice could be heard speaking from another room, to which a quiter voice, muffled by the wind, was replying. Scott walked out the door in to the other room, Kirk easing his way after him very carefully.
The sight that greeted him froze him to the spot.
STSTST
The little alien stepped aside to let Spock and the younger Jim in and led them to where Scott had already been walking out to confront him. "Keenser, who are these people? We already have enough guests."
"Enough guests, Mr. Scott? I was unware you had anyo-" Spock stilled as a new figure appeared in the doorway Scott had just come out of.
Sensing the sudden change in mood between the two people who had just locked eyes on one another, the younger Jim decided to try and break the tension in the room. "Hello!" He grinned madly.
The older Kirk, still with his arm wrapped around his torso, looked up at the taller man. "Spock..." he hoarsely whispered.