The bridge was a scene of chaos already when I got there.

A blond man was arguing with an older, authoritative-looking man while two blue-shirt-wearing men (one with perfect posture and pointed ears, the other trying desperately to stop the blond from doing something stupid) stood nearby.

The blonde man looked distressed. "Look, sir, that same anomaly-"

"Mister Kirk-"

"Mister Kirk is not cleared to be aboard this vessel," the man with pointed ears pointed out.

Kirk turned to him, seeming tired of listening. "Look, I get it, you're a great orator, I'd love to do it again with you-"

"I can remove the cadet-"

"TRY it, this cadet is trying to save the bridge."

"He's right," I said, voice coming out a little squeaky. The entire bridge turned to me.

"How did you get aboard this ship?" the man with pointed ears.

"Magic," I said sarcastically. "But Mister Kirk is right. The Enterprise is headed into a trap."

"Based on what facts?"

"Yeah, how do you know this?" Kirk asked me.

I laughed nervously. "I uh… I'm a time traveller. I know what's gonna happen because it's a sort of story where I come from."

"That's ridiculous," the older man said. "What proof do you have?"

"Well for starters I can tell you at least the last names of everyone on this bridge, and most of their first names, too. I can tell you their jobs, a few of you I can tell you what your family was like." I stepped forward. "And I can tell you exactly how this mission is going to go if you don't stop right now."

"Do it then," Kirk said. "What are our names?"

I pointed at him. "James T. Kirk." Pointed ears. "Spock." The older man. "Captain Christopher Pike." The other man by Kirk in the blue shirt. "Doctor Leonard McCoy." The pilot. "Hikaru Sulu." The navigator. "Pavel Chekov. Do I need to continue?"

Everyone looked at me in stunned silence.

"Impressive, but you very easily could have looked up our profiles in the StarFleet database," Spock said.

"Ok fine. You don't believe me, and that is pretty good reasoning for why I know what I know.

"But there is no way I can know what people used to say about your eyes. Unless I'm a time traveller."

Spock's expression did not change. "What did people say about my eyes?" He asked. He thought I was bluffing, didn't he?

"That they were human. That they looked sad. And they still do, by the way. Your eyes look sad because you think you don't fit in anywhere."

"Alright that's enough," Pike said, cutting me off. "You were asked to prove you were a time traveller, not insult my crew."

"Do you believe me though?"

"Look, why does any of this matter?" Kirk said, impatient. "We already know that Vulcan is in danger, what difference does it make that this… time-traveller, I guess, knows, too?"

Pike glanced between me and Kirk. "You two better not be wrong about this," he warned. "Shields up, red alert."

Kirk gave me an odd look before turning to face the front of the bridge where everyone was anxiously watching the viewscreen.

"Arrival at Vulcan in five seconds," Sulu announced. "Four, three, two…"

We dropped out of warp into sheer chaos. I was expecting it, of course, but that didn't make it any less terrifying.

"Emergency evasive," PIke ordered.

I felt someone grab my arm and pull me from the bridge back into the corridor.

"Are you happy now?" the Doctor asked. "We've just landed in the middle of a war. You've thrown the whole ship into chaos!"

"That wasn't my fault! This was gonna happen whether I was here or not!" The ship jolted sideways and I grabbed the wall to stay on my feet. "There's this guy named Nero. He's a romulan from the future and he's out to get Spock for failing to save his planet. He's gonna destroy Vulcan, then all the other federation planets."

"You didn't tell that to the crew, did you?"

"No. I haven't told them anything that they didn't already know."

The Doctor sighed. "So you haven't destroyed the timelines yet. Come on, we need to get back to the TARDIS."

"What? We're just gonna leave them?"

"You said it yourself, didn't you? Everything happens just fine whether you're here or not. And I would love to help them, but once you know what happens, you become part of history. I can't fix this." The doctor began to walk back to the TARDIS.

"Fine," I said. "But I'm not leaving. I won't change anything, but I want to see this for myself."

"Augh! You're so damn stubborn, can't you see that this, you being here, is going to destroy what you know about this story?"

"I don't care. And besides, it is just a story, so why does it matter?"

"Because, Ari, these are people's lives at stake! You don't! Get! To mess with that!"

"But what if I can save someone? Just one person."

"You don't get to play God. If you do this, if you mess with the fabric of reality, then we're done." The Doctor's voice was dangerously low.

I looked him in the eye for a few seconds.

"Okay." I turned on my heel and walked back onto the bridge, not waiting for a response.

"He'll kill you, you know that," Kirk was telling Pike.

"Your survival is unlikely," Spock agreed.

"Captain, we gain nothing by diplomacy. Going over to that ship is a mistake."

"I, too, agree. You should rethink your strategy."

Pike, suddenly, turned to me. "Well, time-traveller? What do you think we should do, if you know what happens?"

I stood up a bit straighter and tried to look confident. "Umm… send people down to the drill to disable it. Then you'll get your communication and transport abilities back. Of course, you will have to talk to Nero. The Enterprise won't get away otherwise."

"Absolutely not!" Kirk shouted.

"Mister Kirk, it is in the entire crew's best interest to save as many lives as possible-"

"Hey, HEY!" Spock and Kirk were cut off by Pike. "Look, um…" he motioned at me.

"Ari."

"Ari- thank you- is right. And besides, that's what my plan was going to be anyway. I need officers who have been trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat."

Sulu raised his hand. "I have training, sir."

"Come with me. Kirk, you too. You're not supposed to be here anyway. Spock, Ari is your responsibility from now on. Chekov, you have the conn."

"Aye aye, sir."

I followed Pike, Spock, and Kirk off the bridge and to the engineering sector of the ship. The Doctor was nowhere in sight.

"Without transporters," Pike said, "we can't beam off the ship, we can't assist Vulcan, we can't do our job. Mister Kirk, Mister Sulu, you and Engineer Olson will space-jump from the shuttle. You will land on that machine they lowered into the atmosphere that's scrambling our gear. You'll get inside. You'll disable it, then you'll beam back to the ship." Pike stepped into an open lift. "Mister Spock, I'm leaving you in command of the Enterprise. Once we have transport capabilities, communications back up, you'll contact Starfleet, report what the hell's going on here. And if all else fails, fall back, rendezvous with the fleet in the Laurentian system. Kirk, I'm promoting you to first officer."

"What?" Kirk said, confused but not totally disappointed.

Spock, however, looked like he'd rather have me as first mate than Kirk. "Captain, please. I apologize, the complexity of human pranks escape me."

"This isn't a prank, Spock. And I'm not the captain, you are," Pike said.

"Sir," Kirk cut in, "after we disable the drill, what happens to you?"

"Well, I suppose you'll have to come and get me. Be careful with the ship, Spock. She's brand new." With that, the lift closed on Sulu, Kirk, Pike, and Olsen, leaving me and Spock alone.

"Are you absolutely certain that this is the most logical course of action?" Spock asked.

"Yeah. Yes. Sort of."

Spock's expression changed at my response. Anyone who hadn't been watching Star Trek for the past nine years would never have noticed it. "You just sent four men on a mission that could end in their deaths and you are not completely sure of your plan?"

"The reality I know doesn't include me existing in this timeline. I could have doomed you all just by being here but I'm trying my best. I am trying to keep you guys along the timeline that I know, since that seemed to be the most successful way to do things."

Spock studied my face for a few seconds, probably trying to tell if I was lying. Without a word, he turned and began to walk back to the bridge.

I'll be honest, I always admired Spock as a character, but he terrified me at the same time.