A/N: Warning: Foul language and references to Star Trek: Enterprise ahead
"So, what's going on?" Jim asked as he and Spock quick-stepped toward colony's central government building.
"Minister Ezelle was quite vague, but he did say that it was urgent the newly arrived Federation ambassadors speak to us as soon as possible," Spock replied. "Sir, you are walking with a slight limp. Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I think I pulled something yesterday," he answered. "I haven't ridden a horse in a long time."
"Have you not seen Dr. McCoy for assistance?"
"I'm not going to Bones for a pulled muscle."
"It could be more serious. It is not agreeable for Enterprise to be without—"
"Can it, Spock.
"Yes, Sir."
The doors to the minister's office slid open and Jim nearly choked on his own saliva. The ambassadors were two Vulcans, which was rare enough, but he easily recognized both of them. One was a woman with long, stone gray hair tied at the nape of her neck. Though Jim knew she had to be pushing two hundred years old, she was still beautiful. It was Ambassador T'Pol, the last remnant of a bygone era. The other one was Spock, from an alternate future.
Jim eyed the younger Vulcan on his right and was surprised to read the hint of shock on his face. Someone who didn't know him would have missed it completely, but the captain knew his first officer well enough to see it. He just couldn't tell what was shocking him more: T'Pol or his older self. He decided it must have been T'Pol, or the sight of Vulcans in general.
Minister Ezelle excused himself leaving the other four in an awkward silence.
"Captain Kirk," T'Pol said, stepping forward, "it is an immense pleasure to finally meet you."
"The feeling is mutual," Jim answered formally. "This is my first officer, Commander Spock."
"Commander," T'Pol nodded in greeting. "This is my associate, Tos."
"Tos…right," Jim replied, stilted and obviously uncomfortable.
"We have dual purpose here," T'Pol began. "The first, and official reason is to survey the terraforming technology for use on the new Vulcan colony."
"And the unofficial reason?" Jim asked.
T'Pol glanced back at "Tos" briefly before continuing, "Your concerns about your step-brother have quickly circulated around the Federation Security Council. Naturally, it is a great concern."
"I'm surprised you've responded so quickly," Jim said, eyeing them warily.
"As the ambassador stated earlier," "Tos" interrupted, " we were already on our way here. Admiral Nathanson briefed us on your situation last night. Midian III being so close to the Klingon border coupled with the presence of Enterprise is especially disconcerting."
"Admiral Nathanson thought that this message coming from myself would be more…"
"Like a kick in the ass?" Jim finished.
"Precisely," she answered.
Jim's brow furrowed in confusion at the ambassador's agreement with his assessment.
She smiled slightly, which looked odd on a Vulcan, and said, "Be on your guard, Captain Kirk. I will leave you gentlemen alone now."
When she was gone, Jim looked quickly between the two Vulcans remaining in the room. The silence grew more and more uncomfortable as they stared at one another.
Finally, Jim said, "Okay, the space-time continuum isn't about to collapse and rip the universe apart, is it?"
The Vulcans looked at him and flatly answered, "No."
Jim rolled his eyes and replied, "Well, that's good to know. No offense to either of you, but one of you in my life is bad enough. I really don't need both of you. What is going on?"
"I am accompanying the ambassador on her mission here," the elder Spock answered. "It is, as you would say, my job."
"I find that difficult to believe," the younger Spock replied.
"What he said," Kirk added. "There's a reason for everything you do. Why are you here?"
"This timeline is radically different," Spock said. "Relations with the Klingons are worse than I remember, and there is a player that did not exist."
Jim's face fell. "Isaac," he said quietly. "My father didn't die where you come from. I didn't have a step-father or a step-brother."
"That is correct. If he is not stopped, I fear Federation-Klingon relations will deteriorate and might even be irreparable."
"You seriously think one man can make that big a difference?"
"Captain," the younger Spock interrupted, "you and I both know one man is more than enough to change the fate of an entire universe."
"Be careful. Both of you," he warned.
After another long, awkward silence, the younger Spock said, "May I assume we are excused?"
"You may."
The two younger men turned to leave, but the old man saying, "Jim?" stopped the man in question dead in his tracks.
The captain turned to his first officer and said, "Tell Uhura to intercept and interpret any Klingon transmissions she can find."
"Understood, Sir," Spock answered, before briefly nodding and walking away. Jim appreciated that his first officer wasn't overly curious.
"It creeps me the hell out when you call me by my name," Jim told him. "He hardly ever does that and I don't even really know you. By the way, does Ambassador T'Pol know who you actually are?"
"She does."
"That figures," Jim said, sitting on the edge of the minister's desk. "She's probably the only person alive that wouldn't lock you up in the loony bin and throw away the key."
Spock had a knowing expression in his eyes as he said, "Why do you believe that?"
Jim smiled. "I'm a Starfleet captain," he replied. "I have access to Archer's classified Delphic Expanse files. I know T'Pol spent some time with…well, herself. But you already knew that. I'm betting he's not going to be my right-hand-man forever."
"I would not be so sure of that," Spock warned.
"Is there some specific reason you called me back in here?"
"Dr. Marcus."
"Huh?" Jim asked, unable to hide his surprise.
"She is more than just another woman," Spock told him.
"Could you be less cryptic?"
"I am afraid not," Spock answered before walking out the door.
Jim groaned and said, "God, sometimes I hate them both."
He walked out the door and straight into another person. He managed to stay on his feet by holding onto her waist. He managed to hold in another groan when he realized the woman in his arms was Carol Marcus.
He quickly let go and said, "Sorry."
She straightened her clothes and said, "I was looking for Minister Ezelle. Is he in his office?"
"Uh, no," Jim answered. "He left so we could have a meeting with the new Federation ambassadors."
"So you just threw a man out of his own office?"
"You think I wanted to get an ass kicking from an admiral via an ambassador?"
"You Starfleet types are just so entitled."
Jim threw his arms in the air and laughed mirthlessly. "Why do you care? Are you fucking the minister?"
Jim knew he should have phrased the question differently as soon as her hand crossed his face and a nail split his lip. He wiped the blood with the back of his hand and said, "I sort of deserved that."
On his way out of the door, he saw the older Spock and T'Pol staring at him. He looked at the man and said, "You are out of your Vulcan mind!"
Chekov pressed the door chime at Mariella's quarters. Her reply was barely audible. The door opened to reveal the girl rushing to dry her tears while lying on her disheveled bed.
"Vat eez vrong," he asked as he set the PADD in his hand aside and sat down next to her on the bed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"It's nothing," she replied, a sob just under the surface of her voice. "It's that I…it…I didn't think…it's just so hard to…I'm an orphan."
She took in a deep, shaky breath at that last realization. Pavel tucked a blonde curl behind her ear and turned her head toward him.
"Both of dyour parents being dead does not mean dyou are an orphan any more zan hafing many people vrelated to dyou mean dyou haf family," he told her.
She looked up at him and said, "I know you're not speaking from your own experience."
"No, not mine," he admitted. "Eet vas my best friend as a boy, Pyotr."
"Your best friend's name was Pyotr?" Mariella asked, grinning.
"Da," Pavel anwered, smiling sheepishly and rolling his eyes.
"Peter and Paul?" she said, starting to laugh. "That's just funny."
"Is vat my grandmozer tought," he explained. "Is not point though. His parents vere scientists. Dey vere wery inwolved in their vork. Dey barely noticed ven he vas gone. His grand parents and aunts and uncles vere all dee same. He vas an orphan though he had many relatives. Dyou are an orphan in name only, unlike Pyotr."
She smiled up at him and kissed him on the lips. "You're catching onto the right thing to say and when," she told him.
"Is good I hope," he replied.
"What did you bring me?"
"A story," Pavel said, picking up his discarded PADD. "Von ov my faworites."
She looked at it and grinned. "A story about an orphan who saves the world?"
"Only after he realizes he is newer alone," Pavel said, returning her smile.
"Read it to me," she said, nestling her head into his chest.
"Vill you be able to understand me?" he asked sheepishly.
"I understand you fine," she told him. "Read."
He smiled and said, "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley ov number four, Priwet Drive, ver proud to say dat dey ver perfectly normal, sank you wery much."
"What exactly did you say to her?"
"I asked her if she was fucking the minister."
"Did you ask her like that?"
"Yeah."
"Jesus, Jim, usually you're so much better than that with women."
"Thank you, Bones, I really appreciate that."
"Well, you should be fine," Bones told him. "Just try not to get smacked for the next couple of days."
Jim rolled his eyes and said, "I'll do my best."
"Have you thought that maybe you like Dr. Marcus?"
"Not you too," Jim complained, stopping on his way to the door.
"Too?"
"Nevermind," Jim told him. "What are you talking about?"
"I figure crudely asking a woman about her sex life is the almost mature adult equivalent of pulling her pigtails," Bones explained.
"I do not like the woman," Jim assured him. "As a matter of fact, I loathe the woman. If I never see her again, it will be too soon."
"Whatever you say, Jim," Bones muttered as his captain stomped into the corridor.
"Nyota?" Mariella asked.
"Umhmm," Uhura answered, listening more to the transmission from her ear-wick than to Mariella.
"How do you know when you're in love?"
Uhura nearly choked on her soup and removed the device from her ear. Mariella grinned.
"I thought that would get your attention," the younger woman said.
"I'm sorry, it's just that the captain wants every Klingon transmission intercepted and translated and I'm the only person on the ship who speaks it fluently," Uhura explained. "Were you serious about what you said?"
"Yeah."
"Why are you asking me?"
"Well, it's not like I'm going to ask my brother. I couldn't really ask my dad, and the subject never came up before my mom died," Mariella explained. "You're sort of my only option."
"I can't say I really know the answer," Uhura said. "There's a lot of clichés: you get butterflies in your stomach, you can't imagine ever being with anyone else, but I've never experienced that. I think it's just something that sneaks up on you. One day you just wake up and realize that seeing the other person is the best part of your day, and that, no matter what, that other person will always get you through. Real love isn't some grand romance. It's a lot simpler than that."
Tears silently rolled down her cheeks. Mariella bit her lip sheepishly and said, "I'm sorry, Nyota. I shouldn't have brought it up."
"No, it's fine," Uhura answered, standing up and gathering her things. "I-I'm just going to go down to the surface. A natural setting should help me think."
Mariella lost her appetite and pushed her food away as her friend rushed out into the corridor.
Same precipice. Same brown sky. Same Spock sitting next to her, staring into the Vulcan landscape.
"You're off-duty. You're meditating, aren't you?"
"I am."
"Is that the only time this can happen: when you're meditating and I'm dreaming or daydreaming?"
"I do not know."
"No one ever had this talk with you?" she asked factiously. "Your parents were so irresponsible."
"Please do not speak of my parents in that fashion."
She let the silence linger for a few more moments before saying, "We shouldn't have ended our relationship and then had sex."
"I did not ask you—"
"I know you didn't," Uhura cut him off. "It was my choice and it was stupid."
Spock looked down into the deep gorge beneath them. "I am sorry you feel that way."
She placed her hand under his chin and turned his head to look at her. "I didn't mean having sex," she explained. "I meant breaking up with you in the first place. I've been giving Chekov and Mariella romantic advice for weeks and I'm the idiot who gave up the best thing that ever happened because I was uncomfortable."
"I—"
"Please don't say anything," she asked. "I told Chekov that the right person would always forgive you for your mistakes. I hope you can forgive me."
The emotionless mask Spock always wore slipped off and confusion replaced it. He opened his mouth to reply, but the voice Uhura heard was female.
"Lieutenant?"
Uhura looked up at an aged, Vulcan woman with long, gray hair draped over one shoulder. Even though the years had changed her, she still seemed like the hero from Uhura's history books.
"Ambassador T'Pol," she said as she jumped up and brushed the grass off of her uniform. "I'm sorry. I was…somewhere else."
"Will you walk with me, Lieutenant?" T'Pol asked. "It is not good for an old woman to be alone."
"Of course," Uhura answered, offering the ambassador her arm.
T'Pol looped her arm through the young lieutenant's and they walked slowly, in silence, along the banks of the Aloran River.
"I remember you," T'Pol said finally.
"You do?" Uhura asked, clearly surprised.
"You were one of the honor students at the opening of the Sato Linguistics Lab at Starfleet Academy," the Vulcan woman explained. "You were hard to forget."
"Why?"
"You clearly adored your instructor," T'Pol answered flatly. "He was Vulcan. It was unusual, even then."
"He's half-human," Uhura replied, unsure of what else to say.
"I know," T'Pol said, "but he mostly ignores his human side, does he not?"
"He does."
"To deny oneself a part of themselves is foolish," T'Pol said wisely. "Will you sit with me? I have something I feel I must tell you."
"Of course," Uhura answered, sitting down next to the woman on a rustic wooden bench.
"Do you know why I am an outcast among my people?"
"Not entirely."
"I chose humans," T'Pol explained simply. "Many Vulcans feel you are inferior to us, but I that in many ways, you are far superior."
"How so?"
"You do not have to suppress your emotions to live peaceably in the universe," T'Pol said. "I learned so much from your species. Even my bondmate was human."
Uhura's ears piqued at the word, "bondmate." "I didn't think you were married. Who was your bondmate, if I'm not overstepping my bounds?"
"Charles Tucker III."
Uhura's eyes widened in surprise. "I heard rumors, but I didn't think they were true."
"I felt him die," T'Pol informed her. "It was as though a part of me died as well."
"Was it worth it?" Uhura asked her. "Was it worth being so connected to someone even when they died before you?"
"Yes," T'Pol answered quickly.
Uhura smiled and said, "Thank you, I have to go."
She didn't look back to see the Vulcan woman smiling at her.
Spock stood up as he heard the door chime. The door slid open to reveal Uhura on the other side. He took a deep breath and said, "I will always forgive you, and I hope you will always forgive me."
She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck as she kissed him softly but firmly on the mouth. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her inside, closing the door behind them.
A/N: In case you didn't know, the book Chekov read from is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, or Philosopher's Stone if you live anywhere but America. It seemed appropriate. I made multiple references to Star Trek: Enterprise and even included a whole character. If you didn't get it, I'm sorry. You should check the series out though. It had great moments of brilliance in a mediocre sea, but its brilliance is well worth it. Thanks for the reviews and alerts.