Captain's Log Supplemental
Stardate 2261.235

We've contacted Starfleet Command and further confirmed that we have successfully returned to our
own reality. The Quantum Storm (I decided that the name given it by the Saratoga is far more fitting)
dissipated a few hours after we arrived. One minute it was there, the next it just…dispersed like a cloud
blown away by the wind with only residual traces of its unique energy signature detectable on our scans.
I guess the knot got untangled.

We've left behind warning beacons to steer any ships clear of this region. But given the unpredictable,
and we know now, dangerous nature of the anomaly, we can only hope for the best.

We're now moving away from the Campor System. In order to monitor for any unexpected changes
we're traveling at full impulse. Tomorrow we'll go to warp and we'll get back to what the Enterprise is
meant to do. Explore.

James T. Kirk

Bridge
5:46 PM

Kirk looked up as Spock approached. "We suffered only minimal damage to our hull and systems, Captain.
All under repair. The modifications suggested by the Saratoga held. Their assistance was invaluable."

Kirk nodded. The Saratoga. That was something that had been very much on his mind and on the rest of his
crew's as well. During another staff meeting all of them had confirmed that he or she had learned what had
happened between his counterpart and theirs.

Their reactions were varied: outrage for what had happened to the other Kirk. Disbelief, sorrow and guilt
for the way their counterparts had been involved. It had hit Uhura especially hard. The other Kirk had said
that the Saratoga specialized in taking a closer look and their encounter with it had made all of them take
a closer look at themselves. He knew that they would all be processing and talking about this for a long time.

He himself had been shocked at first, unable to believe how the other Enterprise crew had acted. But then
he'd thought back to the early days of his command. What he had been like. What all of them had been like:
Him. Bones, Spock, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov.

He and the rest of them had all been much younger. They had all been brilliant, talented and dedicated.
And they had also been arrogant, naïve and immature. They had all possessed greatness but had lacked
humility. They had all been brilliant but lacking in wisdom. It had taken three years of serving in the black
together, three years of learning the consequences of actions. Three years of serving together. Three years
of dangers, sacrifices, losses and victories, for all of them to grow in ways beyond imagining.

Back then they had all been new to the Enterprise and new to each other and at first there hadn't been
much of a bond. But three years of serving together had seen that bond, their friendships, grow into
something that he couldn't imagine living without.

No, he wasn't the person that he had been three years ago and neither were they. And even back then
they had been a good crew; they wouldn't have been able to defeat Nero if they weren't.

In another reality there had been a betrayal, but it had been the result of tragic misunderstandings and
miscommunication, not malice. Their counterparts had immediately regretted it and attempted amends,
but his counterpart had been too badly injured to forgive them. The other crew had made a mistake and
tragically some mistakes last forever.

If they wanted to take a lesson from their encounter with the Saratoga then it should be to never take each
other for granted. To always be there for each other. To always listen to each other. And if mistakes were
made to forgive.

Whatever had happened in another reality, this reality was what he chose to focus on. And in this reality
the Enterprise was his home and her crew his family.