Chapter 2

"We need to talk in private. But first, I have a First Officer to attend to," Kirk said. Then he pulled out his comm again. "Bones, you almost here?"

"I'm right down the hall. Jesus, Jim, hold your horses. I'll be there in a second."

Just as he promised, Bones walked through the door moments later.

Dean's mouth opened before he could stop it. "It's him," he whispered to Sam. "It's Dr. Sexy." Dean's eyes opened wide as he caught his own mistake. "Um. McCoy." He hadn't meant any of it to be more than a hiss, but unfortunately McCoy heard him.

"Sexy, huh? Well I can't say I'm not flattered, but keep your peepers to yourself. I'm a doctor, not a model." Sam snickered as the doctor knelt down to examine Spock. "What happened to him?"

"Mr. Celestial Being over there threw him into the wall," Kirk answered.

Bones (McCoy, Dean corrected himself, his name was McCoy) ran his tricorder over the Vulcan. "Well, it looks like he's got a concussion, but he'll be fine when he wakes up. He'll probably have a massive headache, though."

"Alright, well, I'll leave him in your capable hands, Doctor," Jim (Kirk, Dean corrected, call him Kirk) said with a wink, giving a little suggestive wriggle when he used McCoy's title. The doctor rolled his eyes, and Dean grinned at the interchange. "You three, come with me," Kirk said, nodding at Sam, Dean, and Cas. "And you three as well," he added as an afterthought, indicating three security men.

"I thought we were past all that," Dean said, mimicking the captain's tone.

"Just because you flash a pair of wings at me and say you're an angel doesn't mean you're the good guys. But don't worry. They're just gonna stand outside the door in case I need them. And for all our sakes I hope I won't."

Kirk led them to his quarters and closed the door, leaving the security team outside. Then he sat down at his desk and gestured for them to come stand behind him. A moment later, an old man with pointy ears appeared on the screen.

"No way," Dean said. He knew this wasn't any crazier than anything else that had been going on, but...

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

The old man raised one eyebrow. "Jim, may I enquire-"

"It's Leonard Nimoy," Dean whispered to Sam, but he was again overheard. Stupid acute ears.

"I am who?" the old man asked.

"Leonard Nimoy," Dean said, realizing there wasn't much point in pretending he hadn't said anything. "The original Spock, one of the most iconic actors in the history of sci-fi? Because, I mean, William Shatner wasn't bad, necessarily, and Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig made history, but Leonard Nimoy was the real star of the show, everyone knows it. Well... and DeForest Kelley, but he wasn't the one playing an alien here, so..."

"You must have me mistaken for someone else."

"No, you're definitely him. Well I guess since this is an alternate universe, you're not really him... you know what? I'll stop talking now." Dean winced. He wasn't one to stumble over his words, but damn, was this a strange situation.

"Are you suggesting that you are from an alternate universe?" the old man asked. "This is not exactly what I had expected, but I suppose He knows what is best."

"What are you talking about?" Kirk asked, narrowing his eyes at Spock.

The Vulcan gave him a tiny affectionate smile. "I was meditating on finding a solution to your Klingon problem when I accidentally made contact with an unexpected being," he began.

"You spoke to God?" Castiel asked.

"That may be one name for the Being," Spock said, looking totally unsurprised by Cas' interruption – and assumption. "I do not know. I know only that He was benevolent and powerful, and that He offered to help, and that I accepted."

"You made contact with and accepted help from an unknown, all-powerful being that you had absolutely no familiarity or previous experience with?" Jim asked disbelievingly. "Not very logical of you, Mr. Spock."

"I disagree. It was an eminently logical decision. One cannot lie on the mental plane – it is impossible. I therefore knew that this Being was trustworthy, and that I could only do well to accept His offer of assistance."

"What did He feel like?" Castiel asked. Could this Being be his Father? Could He actually be here?

"He felt like power and warmth and kindness and His presence was all-encompassing. Those are the best words I have to describe Him."

"Well this guy here claims to be an Angel of the Lord," Kirk said, gesturing to Cas and giving a little helpless shrug. "He showed me his wings, or at least a shadow of them, anyway."

"This is a most intriguing situation we find ourselves in," Spock commented. "And a potent reminder that even through all our advances in science, there is always more to discover."

"You can get all philosophical later, Spock," Kirk said. "Right now we have more urgent questions. Like – you're saying that you asked the Big Guy Upstairs for help with the Klingons and He sent one of His angels and his two sidekicks from an alternate universe? That sounds pretty–"

"I am nobody's sidekick," Dean interrupted, but Kirk shot him a look that made him shut up immediately.

"Yes, that appears to be the case, Jim," Spock answered.

"Great," he groaned, letting his head fall into his hands. "How am I going to explain this to you?"

Sam frowned.

"The other him," Kirk explained quickly. "My – the younger Spock."

Dean snorted at the slip-up.

"Quite carefully, I would imagine." Jim could hear the amusement in Spock's voice.

Jim shot him a look, and received a fond smile in return.

"All right, all right, not to crash your little chick flick party here, but there actually are bigger issues going on right now. Like... when are we going to eat?" Dean asked. "I'm starving."

"Not again," Sam said. "You're always hungry."

"I'm a warrior. I need food to build my muscles."

"Pancakes and hamburgers don't build muscle, Dean. They build cholesterol. And arterial blockage."

"Lettuce and carrots isn't real food either, Sammy, so what's your point?"

"We can get food later!" Kirk interrupted, frowning. "Right now we need to figure out how you're supposed to help us defeat the Klingons, because the Big Guy obviously thinks you're the answer to our problem."

"Would you please stop referring to my Father as 'the Big Guy'?" Cas asked.

Kirk ignored him. "Did He leave you any clues when you contacted Him, Spock?"

"Not that I am aware of," Spock replied. "He simply let me know that He'd be sending people to help."

"And you didn't tell me this before they landed on the Enterprise and caused a ship-wide panic?"

"You were busy with your captainly duties. I could not get a hold of you." His voice was as dry as Jim had ever heard it.

"Oh, sure," Jim scoffed. He seemed to be doing a lot of scoffing today. "Because you don't have the resources to get through to me anywhere, anytime."

"Those are resources that I prefer not to utilize until they are absolutely necessary," Spock said. "And if you recall, it was you who ended our conversation prematurely, indicating a wish to be, as you say, 'left alone'."

"Well, yeah, but–"

"Just listen to your boyfriend, Cap," Dean sighed.

"To my what?! And what did you just call me?"

"Sorry, Captain. And fine – wrong Spock."

"Neither Spock is my boyfriend."

"Oh, so there isn't a 'my Spock' running around the ship somewhere, Captain?" Dean smirked infuriatingly.

Jim just clenched his jaw and shook his head, but then he saw an opportunity he couldn't resist."What about you and Mr. Guardian Angel over here?" he asked, doing his damndest to turn the tables.

"What? There's nothing going on between me and Cas." The guy looked genuinely surprised. How cute.

"Come on, you've only been on this ship for a few hours and I've already seen you eye fuck at least five times."

Dean's eyes widened, and his hands made a funny twitch like he was resisting the urge to clamp his hands over the angel's ears. Kirk snickered.

"Can we please get back to the real issues here?" Sam asked impatiently.

Jim was okay quitting while he was ahead. "Right. Okay. So what exactly can you guys do?" he asked. "I need to know your skill set if I'm going to incorporate you into a plan to defeat the Klingons – although, seriously? How am I supposed to–" Spock caught his eye with a warning glance, and he turned his complaint into a cough. "I mean, I already know this guy can teleport and knock people out, but what else can you do?"

"Well, Cas here can smite and heal people with a touch of his hand. Sam and I are good with guns and knives—all kinds of weapons, really, although neither of us has ever used a phaser—and we've ganked quite a few sons of bitches who were tougher than the Klingons," Dean said.

"How much do you know about the Klingons? If you're from an alternate universe, there could be differences between the Klingons you're familiar with and the ones we have here."

Jim was just being practical, but Dean raised his eyebrows, and damn him if that motion wasn't just as hot on the guy as it was on Bones – and Spock, for that matter. Maybe he just had an unrealized eyebrow kink.

"Where we come from, this is all a TV show and a few movies," Dean said.

"TV?" Jim asked. What the hell– "Movies?"

"2D holos," Dean explained. "Fictional ones, in your case. The one you're from, or I guess where the other Spock is from, Star Trek, was real popular in the 1970s and '80s. Then it made a revival just recently with the reboot series, which is where we are right now. Into Darkness is coming out soon, too. Charlie couldn't shut up about it for a few days there, remember, Sammy?"

"How could I not?" his brother smiled fondly, evidently recalling some amusing experience. "Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan," Sam continued abruptly, meeting Jim's eyes. "It's gonna be good."

"Khan?!" the old Vulcan's voice cut through the room. "Does he exist in this universe as well?"

Sam winced. So much for not messing up timelines or destroying universes. "Uh... yeah. He's white this time though, which a lot of people are offended about—can't blame 'em, really. Representation is really—I mean, especially when you've got a canon character of color, you can't just–" Dean shook his head (not relevant right now), so Sam moved on. "...and from what the trailers show it's definitely not gonna go down the same way it did with you."

Relief flooded Spock's features. It was strange to see him so expressive.

"So we—mostly I—know about as much about this future as Spock Prime here does," Dean explained. "Maybe a bit more."

"Be cautious of what you reveal," Spock warned. "We do not know how it will affect the future."

"Well, I figure there's some kind of set path," Dean said, "Or we wouldn't remember any of the STID trailers, would we?"

"I do not know, and it is not wise to gamble with timelines."

"Okay, okay–" Jim shook his head. "Not relevant right now. We need to know more about the situation on Deveva Prime more than anything. And to do that, we need to keep the engines from exploding. Do any of you know anything about Warp Core Mechanics?"

Sam shook his head. "I'm a law student, not an engineer, and I always preferred fantasy to sci-fi anyway. I've got no clue."

"I know a bit," Dean said, frowning slightly. "No practical experience, obviously, but I've done enough work on Baby I think I've got the basics down good enough."

"Baby?"

"His car," Sam snickered.

"A starship is a bit different than a car." Jim said skeptically.

"Ah, come on, just let me help. I've seen enough episodes of Star Trek to know all the fancy engineering terms you guys use."

"It can't hurt to let you try," Jim said doubtfully. "But first I'm gonna go down to sickbay and visit Spock. You guys can go get some food. I'll have the security team outside the door take you–"

"Security team still? Really?" Dean interrupted.

"I'm just gonna have them show you the way and then they're gonna leave. Chill out. Dean, meet me down in Engineering in an hour. Talk to you later, Spock. Kirk out."

"How is he, Bones?" Jim asked as he walked into sickbay.

"He's awake now, so I was just about to do my final examination before I cleared him to leave. You can go see him if you want," the doctor answered.

"Thanks, Bones," Kirk said, clapping him on the shoulder as he walked past him to Spock's bed.

"Jim," Spock said in greeting.

"Hey, Spock. How are you feeling?"

"Dr. McCoy has given me medication for the pain, so I should be able to return to duty."

"That's good." Jim shifted awkwardly in place.

Spock sat up with sudden urgency, and Jim resisted the urge to push him back down on the bed. "Are the intruders back in their cell? Have they been secured?"

"Uh, not exactly."

Spock's eyes narrowed so slightly that if Jim didn't know him so well he might not have noticed. "I do not understand."

"Well, they're not in the cell."

"Then am I correct in assuming you have secured them in another location, Captain?" His voice was growing sharper by the second.

"I... didn't secure them anywhere." This was ridiculous. Jim shouldn't feel like a child telling his mom he'd broken her favorite vase. He was captain of this ship, God damn it! He wouldn't allow his First Officer to order him around – especially if his First Officer never had to say a word before he was running around to carry out the Vulcan's unspoken will.

"With all due respect Captain, I do not find it logical for you to waste time visiting me in sickbay when there are intruders wreaking havoc on the ship."

"They're not wreaking havoc, and I think the word 'visitors' is more accurate than 'intruders'."

"Jim," Spock said, enunciating clearly and forcefully, "If I find that this is not a hallucination induced by my recent head injury, I may have to declare you unfit for duty and take command, because you are quite clearly not making remotely logical decisions."

"You're not imagining things, Spock," Jim said. Then he decided to just explain the whole thing in one go and hope Spock understood. "Listen to me. While you were knocked out, the prisoners escaped and told me that the one with the blue eyes—you know, the one who threw you into the wall—is an Angel of the Lord. Of course, I didn't believe them... until he flashed me his wings. So then I took them down to my cabin where we had a chat with Old Spock and we found out that while he was meditating he accidentally made contact with God and He offered to help us with our Klingon problem. Apparently the help He sent us is in the form of an Angel and his two friends from an alternate universe where our lives are fictional and people watch them on 2D holos."

Spock looked unconvinced. "If you are telling the truth, then my alternate self is either lying or delusional. God does not exist."

"If it makes you feel any better, he didn't call Him God. He just said He was a being that he'd never encountered before. Our three visitors pretty adamantly believe that He's God, though."

"That is... unfortunate," Spock said slowly, as if he were having difficulty finding the right words to describe the situation. "No one with as much power as they appear to possess should be allowed to sustain delusions of this magnitude. It is illogical; they will doubtless base any decisions they make upon their false premise, and in some way bring disaster to the ship. I still believe that the wisest course would be to find some way to contain them, and failing that, to find some way to destroy them."

"Spock!" Jim's voice was not surprised, or even chastising. It was downright horrified. "You can't just kill people because they have magic and believe in God! Why – what would the Vulcan moral code say about this?!"

"The good of the many always supersedes the welfare of the few, and the presence of these beings may very well lead to the destruction of this ship, and the death of all on board," Spock said impassively.

Jim was seriously, honestly disappointed in him. No one with any real, Human compassion would be able to say something like that, not that seriously. "I think that's a bit of a jump, don't you?" he enquired, a little desperately. "I mean, sure, the guy threw you into a wall, and you've got to be mad about that, but–"

"Vulcans do not 'get mad', Captain," Spock interrupted.

Jim ignored him. "–that's hardly a logical reason to assume that he'd destroy the ship, or even that he's got that kind of power! No offense, but moving one Vulcan is hardly the same as blowing up a Constitution-class starship."

"You did not feel his mind," Spock said, and his voice tremored slightly. "You may be aware, Sir, that Vulcans have katras, and Humans have souls. Other sentient species all have their own equivalent." Jim nodded, not seeing where this was going. "This being had none of these."

Jim frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"He was entirely different from any consciousness I have ever before felt. His equivalent... I apologize, Captain, I can not explain it in any Human language."

"Try."

"Katras – katras are the desert sand, hissing and sliding and trailing, always changing and always the same, bright red and colorless, hot and dry and stinging and grasping. Souls are different – more individual. Yours is made of sunlight and warmth and drops of cool rain dripping through the thick foliage of a Terran wood, and the whisper of wind in the golden fields. What he had–" Spock could barely contain a shudder. "It was lightning and ozone and a thunderclap splitting a planet in two, and the cry of a child that nobody hears shaking a forest till the trees splinter and crash to the ground in infinite tiny piercing shards. There was power like I have never felt thrumming beneath his skin, barely contained and on the brink of spilling out, because whatever form he is meant to take, it is impossibly larger than the one he currently inhabits."

"Oh." That was all Jim could think to say. His head started to hurt as he tried to imagine that kind of power.

"As you can see, Captain, he is perfectly capable of destroying the ship and us along with it. Therefore, the wisest course of action would be to restrain him or destroy him."

"But Spock—the other Spock—thinks they can be trusted. He said that the being he encountered was benevolent and trustworthy. And according to him you can't lie on the mental plane, so it must be true. And if a being that powerful and wise thinks these guys are the answer to our problems, then who am I to disagree? Just trust me, Spock. They're on our side."

"Captain, are you saying that because these intruders are trusted by a powerful, unknown being and that being is in turn trusted by my alternate self, whom you trust, I should trust them, because I have placed my trust in you?"

"...yes?"

Spock shook his head. "I cannot do that. However, I do assure you that I will not make any hostile move toward them unless they act in a manner that endangers the ship or any one of its crew, especially you. I... it would be unfortunate if the Enterprise were to lose its captain so near the beginning of its voyage." Spock did not say it, but the unspoken sentiment hung heavy in the air.

Jim smiled. "The Enterprise is a 'she', Spock. And... thanks." Whether or not Spock denied it later, Jim knew what Spock had been about to say: I care for you. I am, and always shall be, your friend. Not in as many words, certainly, but Jim didn't care. He would take Spock like he got him.

And that was okay.