After that, Jim quickly runs out of things to say, which turns out to be fine because nobody else in the room is exactly at their most talkative.
"I like your hair," the older Uhura finally says, stepping down off the transporter pad.
"Thanks," Jim's Uhura says quickly and Jim watches the two women look at each other for a long moment, while everyone else looks at them too.
Eventually, the room snaps back into action, for better or for worse since even as Jim's thinking of the appropriate thing to say to himself, the older man steps off the platform and, with a quick glance at Jim, walks right past him.
"Spock?" he asks quietly and whatever the reply is, it's too soft for Jim to hear. "Spock!" he says again and out of the corner of his eye, Jim sees him grasp Spock by the upper arms.
"Well, that worked," Scotty says, frowning down at the transporter console. "Sort of."
"Jim Kirk," the older man says, turning towards him and holding out his hand. Jim's not sure if it's an introduction or if he's being told his own name, and is fighting an urge to just duck out of the room, so it takes him a moment to step forward and grasp the offered hand in his own, wondering even as he does so whether they'll like disappear in a puff of smoke due to universe ending paradoxes. But they don't disappear, which would have saved him the trouble of actually speaking to a man who is… himself, just older, wiser, more confident and all around everything Jim is not entirely sure he has it in himself to ever be.
The hand he shakes is firm and powerful, and he forces himself to grin and say, "like looking in a mirror."
It earns him a nod that he counts as a resounding success considering his track record with authority figures, and the captain turns towards the two Uhuras.
"Glad to see you're in one piece. Both of you, that is."
Uhura – Jim's Uhura, which he immediately decides is going to give him a migraine just about any minute now - just gives the older Jim a slight smile.
"I guess we established that it was a simple swap of two universes, then?" she asks and Scotty steps from behind his console to answer her.
"Aye, the Commander and I were just finishing our calculations on Romulus' star when the transporter started receiving an oscillating reverse polarity signal-"
"-A what?" Bones asks, stepping into the room and crowding the small space with yet another person. "Jim!"
"Bones, good to be back."
"Good to have you back," Bones nods and looks back and forth between the older captain and Jim. "Not that I don't need a hypo for my blood pressure with the two of you running around here. Thanks for not grabbing the other Spock while you were at it or I'd just check myself into Sickbay now and leave Chapel to deal with all of you."
"Not a danger of that," the older man says easily and Jim doesn't think he's imagining the way that Uhura's face fall slightly, nor the mounting pressure in his own stomach when he sees how easy and happy the other crew look now that their own captain and comm officer is back. Jim has hope for his crew to grow in to a similar camaraderie but it gnaws at him to know that despite the older Spock's words that Jim was destined to form a friendship with Spock, as well as the clear affection between Jim's counterpart and this Spock, he may never have that chance.
"How's our universe?" Jim asks, shaking himself out of his reverie. "Everyone alright over there?"
"Everyone's great. That seventeen year old version of Chekov you guys have managed to finagle the transporter beam into something that could get us back home." The older man starts towards the door, glancing back over his shoulder and issuing orders with a calm that Jim studies carefully. "Get our Chekov to Conference Room A with all of the rest of you. Sulu as well for good measure, and we'll meet there in five. I need a minute to get re-oriented."
Jim watches him head down the corridor to what, until five minutes ago, were Jim's quarters and he's busy trying to decide if it's weird that he's been wearing the other man's underwear, but it's really his own underwear, just future underwear in an alternate reality, when he feels Uhura step up beside him.
She is either aces at pretending not to notice Spock following the captain down the hall,
or she knows better than to look because she just waits beside Jim, studying him as the two men walk away.
"This is kind of weird," he says softly as they fall into step behind the other Uhura, Bones, and Scotty on their way to the conference room. Uhura's gaze turns towards her short-haired twin and she just nods without speaking.
The other Jim and Spock duck back into the conference room right before Chekov and Sulu get there as well.
The Ensign and Lieutenant look around, wide eyed and Jim thinks it's probably one thing for them to have heard some crazy rumors about him and Uhura, versus seeing two Captain Kirks and two Lieutenant Uhuras in the flesh.
"Sir," Chekov says hesitantly, looking back and forth between Jim and his counterpart, obviously unsure who to address that to. He finally just sinks into a chair rather than come to a firm conclusion as to which is right. Sulu follows him, sitting slowly and the rest of them do as well.
"We made it back, but we have a significant problem," the older Jim says, clasping his hands on the table after he quickly fills in Sulu and Chekov.
"Before we get into that," Bones interrupts even as Uhura and Jim trade looks and Jim feels a shiver crawl up his spine at the thought of what this problem might be. "Did you all figure out what caused this?"
"Their universe is still unstable from the new rifts in the time-space continuum," the other Uhura explains. "It seems that it just… sucked us into it and pushed them over here."
"Never heard of such a thing," Bones mutters. "And what is this problem, Jim?" he asks, leaning forward in his chair and Jim can't help but feel something tighten inside of him at the sight of Bones staring at someone else with that same intensity that he's given to Jim over the last three years.
He steels himself, talks himself down from that because as similar as they are, this isn't his Bones. His Bones is out there somewhere and it just makes Jim's head spin with how ready to get home he is.
"The other Chekov and the other Scotty were able to modify their transporter based on the temporal signature we left behind when we slid into their universe. By mimicking that and boosting the phase actuator-"
"-They were able to reproduce the anomaly while also reversing the effects," Spock finishes for him and Jim glances between the two of them, something hard settling in his stomach at the easy teamwork that he had the briefest glimpse of with his own Spock.
"We couldn't even pick up any signs of our arrival on scans in this universe," Jim points out, "and yet you were able to hone in on our temporal signature?"
"Yes, and that's just it. Some of your tech," the captain says, waving to Jim and Uhura, who's sitting next to him, her pony tail draped over one shoulder like a reminder of everything that's different. "Is far, far more advanced than ours. Not all of it, but there's some major differences."
"I noticed that," Jim nods, gesturing to a padd.
"I took the time to look at your history texts," Uhura says and Jim files it away so that he can at some point in the future rib her about the time they slid into an alternate universe and she did homework. "It looks like the big push Starfleet made in the wake of the Kelvin towards R and D, as well as recruitment for weapons specialists and engineers never happened in this universe."
"What's the purpose of your Federation, then?" Sulu asks.
"The charter is the same but we're more… militarized, it seems. I can't explain it without more time to look at hard facts, but I can't find references to the kind of training that we do, with space jumps and hand to hand combat, and the specifications of our phasers and torpedoes far outstrip yours," Uhura explains.
"Space jumps?" Scotty echoes, his forehead creasing. "We're just explorers."
"You should see their ship, Scotty," the older Kirk says.
"Now don't go saying it's better than this one or I'll think they've sent back the wrong captain, sir."
The captain just shakes his head, a small smile playing across his face.
"I wasn't going to say that. It is… whiter, though. And the bridge is bigger."
"You know what they say about ships with big bridges," Bones says, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.
"I am not familiar with any sayings regarding that subject," Spock interjects.
Jim looks at all of them, at the captain glancing between his CMO and first officer with a smile on his face, and the obvious ease of how the crew is together. It makes feels hot and jumpy and as much as they seems happy to be back together again, it only serves to remind him that he has his own home to get to.
"So the problem is that we have technology that helped the two of you get back, but we don't have here?" Jim asks as he puts his palms on the table. He drums his fingers against it until he catches sight of his counterpart's neatly laced hands and makes himself stop.
"If they can build it on their ship, we can build it on ours," Scotty says in a tone that dares anyone to argue with him. "Let's have it sir, what needs to be done?"
"Their active ion field transducer runs a reverse flux polarity module," the older Kirk starts.
"We'll have to boost our particle frequency stabilizer," Scotty says slowly, starting to nod.
"And allot for any disruption from the transducer by increasing the bioneural transference buffer," Spock says. "Doctor McCoy, you are able to allocate for any-"
"Bioneural transference?" Bones cuts in. "Jim, this can't be safe."
"We're here," the older man says, gesturing to himself and the other Uhura.
"But if their technology is so much-"
"It's fine, Bones."
"If we loop in a relay with the quantum replication compensator, that should offset any bioneural issues," Scotty says. "I know that transporter like the back of my hand, sir, and if we can get a lock on the bio signatures, I can feed it in and we'll be good to go."
"But we can't pick up the same signals with these sensors," Jim reminds the rooms. "How are we… No. No, no, no."
"Full body scans," Bones says, pushing his chair back from the table and rising. "It'll take a while, but it's the safest option, especially if you two don't want your atoms scrambled half in this universe and half in the next one."
"You want us to lay around in sickbay for the next four hours while everyone here gets to actually work?" Jim asks, glancing over at Uhura, who looks nothing less than pleased by the notion.
"Six hours, Jim, in all likelihood."
"Bones," he groans.
"Complain to your own doctor when you get back," Bones suggests and it's that, and only that, that gets Jim on his feet.