Chapter Two

When Jim woke up the next morning, it was the sound of voices that pulled him out of his bizarre dream-world. He had dreamed that he and Neevok had encountered another Vulcan during a trek across Delta Vega in search of the Starfleet outpost, and that Vulcan turned out to be Spock, or rather Spock Prime as he called himself. So Jim was a little surprised to wake up and find the man from his dreams sitting on the other side of the fire with Neevok. He sat up a little too quickly and all the blood rushed out of his head.

"Whoa. Headrush."

"Good morning, Jim." Neevok said cheerfully, but not loudly.

"Good…is it morning?"

"Yes, the sun rose three hours ago."

"Oh." He rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand, "By the way, Neevok, thanks."

"For?"

"Whatever you gave me last night worked. All I've got this morning is a headache."

"Food will help with that, but this will make it go away faster." Neevok waved a strange-looking hypo-spray at him and came around the fire. Jim sat very still as Neevok pulled down the collar of his shirt, "Hold still, this might sting a little." Jim flinched but didn't jump as the hypo made contact with the side of his neck, he couldn't help wincing.

"Jumpy fella, aren't you?"

"I've had a few experiences." he rubbed the side of his neck ruefully, "But I'll give you one thing, you're a hell of a lot gentler with that thing than Bones."

"Who is that?"

"Doctor McCoy, the Enterprise's CMO. A little rough around the edges, but a decent fellow once you get to know him." Spock Prime pitched in helpfully with the closest thing to a smirk Jim had ever seen on a Vulcan's face.

"This is going to sound really weird, but I had a dream about you last night. What are you doing here?"

"I'd tell you, but I don't know if you would understand."

"Obviously, I'm not going anywhere." He gestured belittlingly at the walls of their shelter, "And no way I can get back to the Enterprise now, they're halfway out of the system."

"You aren't her captain?"

"No, I'm not. You are." He looked across the space between them, "Captain Pike made your younger self Acting Captain, me First Officer. Look where that got me."

"Oh, you should never, never argue with your captain." Neevok shook his head seriously.

"Yeah, except my captain got it into his head that he can rejoin the fleet in the Laurentian system and still make it back to Earth in time to stop Nero."

"Who?"

"An incredibly troubled Romulan." Spock Prime grew solemn, "How do you know him, Jim?"

"He blew up seven Starfleet vessels, killed over half my classmates, and destroyed Vulcan not that long ago. Do I need more reasons to hate this guy's guts and want him dead?"

"Oh, dear. That's so sad. I'm so sorry." Neevok looked very sad, "Were many of them your friends?"

"I didn't have all that many friends, and the one friend I did have risked his career to get me onto the Enterprise when I was grounded on academic suspension." Jim got up and paced the cave, "You know, Neevok, I've only met a couple of Vulcans in my lifetime, most of them recently, and you're by far the oddest I've seen."

"I'm only half-Vulcan."

"What the other half?"

"Talaxian."

"Never heard of them."

"My species hails from the Delta Quadrant."

"Oh, that's why. Talk about uncharted space." Jim kept pacing, "Any ideas on how to get out of here?"

"There's a Starfleet outpost fourteen kilometers from here, our best chance at getting back to the Enterprise or any civilization will be from there." Spock Prime got up and brushed off his hands. They set about dismantling their temporary camp and after a breakfast of rations they set off across the ice after Spock Prime initiated a mind-meld with Jim to show him why he knew Nero and how he had come to be on Delta Vega.

"What's wrong, Jim?" Neevok caught him as he staggered in shock, "Are you alright?"

"What the hell just happened?"

"Emotional transference cannot be helped, and I'm very sorry for that."

"Jesus Christ! He's a madman!" Jim leaned against the wall, "It's not just Vulcan! It's the Federation!" Neevok kept one hand on his shoulder, the other was under his elbow to keep him from hitting the ground.

"Jim, breathe, son. Just breathe." Neevok counseled, rubbing his shoulder comfortingly, "Buck up, lad, we've got some world-saving to do." Despite his odd appearance and decidedly outlandish attitude, Jim really liked Neevok.

After Jim's head had stopped spinning and he could see again, they bundled up against the cold and he led the way to the outpost, where they met the strangest pair of engineers Jim had ever seen: Montgomery Scott, a disillusioned Starfleet engineer, and Keenser, Scott's petite alien counterpart. After a brief discussion about quantum physics, the intricacies of transwarp beaming, and Admiral Archer's missing prize beagle, Spock Prime beamed Scott, Jim, and Neevok back to the Enterprise using Scott's own formulas.

"Wait a minute, you're coming with us, aren't you?"

"That would be most unwise, Jim. Besides, you have Neevok. If I interfered at this point, I might be robbing you of a vital friendship."

"The chances of me befriending my Spock aren't even worth thinking about, but more power to you." he mounted the platform, "Oh, by the way? Coming back in time and changing things? That's cheating."

"A trick I learned from an old friend. Live long and prosper, Jim." Prime smiled, flashed the Vulcan salute, and beamed them back to the Enterprise. After rescuing Scott from the water turbine, they took off for the bridge, and got cut off by Security long before they got out of Engineering. As they were escorted forcefully to the bridge, Jim tried to think of what he could say to Spock. All he really had to do was get Spock to show some little bit of emotion and surrender his captaincy. Without getting himself killed in the process. The first part was incredibly easy, the second, however, was a little harder. In the end, the only person who had enough nerve to come between Jim and Spock and break up the fight was Neevok, who caught Spock by the arm as the Vulcan pulled back to hit Jim while he was down.

"Stop! Both of you! Stop! Captain, stand down!" Neevok snapped, pushing Spock away from Jim with a strength belying his size.

"Under whose authority?"

"Security Chief of the Voyager. Stand down, Captain Spock." Neevok looked Spock right in the eye, "You have been emotionally compromised and are unfit for further duty." Jim sank to the deck, coughing, and watched as Neevok released Spock, who glanced once around the bridge, spoke briefly to Bones, and then left the bridge. His father followed shortly behind him, and the bridge was dead silent. Neevok came over and pulled Jim to his feet, brushing off his shirt, "Get up, son."

"Thanks, Neevok. Security Chief of the Voyager, huh?"

"Not a shoddy job. I was also their chef and morale officer."

"Nice." He rubbed his throat, "Remind me never to get into a bar-fight with a Vulcan."

"Noted." Neevok grinned.

"Oh, that's great." Bones snapped, "Well congratulations Jim. We've got no Captain and no god damned First Officer to replace him."

"Yeah, we do." Jim looked at Neevok, who just nodded, and sat down in the command chair.

"What?"

"Pike made him First Officer." Sulu offered helpfully, which didn't help Bones' skepticism one bit.

"You gotta be kidding me!"

"Thanks for the support." Jim looked sharply at his friend.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing...Captain." Lieutenant Uhura snarled as she brushed past him.

"So do I." He sighed before reaching over to activate the intercom from the command chair, "Attention crew of the Enterprise, this is Jim Kirk. Mr. Spock has resigned commission and advanced me to acting captain. I know you are all expecting to regroup with the fleet, but I'm ordering a pursuit course of the enemy ship to Earth. I want all departments at battle stations and ready in ten minutes. Either we're going down... or they are. Kirk out."

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