It all started on what was a (relatively) normal mission for the crew of the Enterprise-A.
The ship had received a mission to investigate an anomaly that had appeared in space about thirty light years from Cestus III. They had arrived at its location around four days ago and the entire ship had been working vehemently on studying it ever since. The bridge crew was no different.
Uhura was busy analyzing transmissions originating from small probes which had come from the anomaly. She was able to determine that they were most likely broadcasting scientific information, and that it was in a language that belonged to a species no one had ever seen before. She took decoding it as a personal challenge and was very absorbed in her work.
Sulu was constantly working to try to get the closest distance to the anomaly as safely possible, without getting sucked in by its fluctuating gravimetric pull. Chekov was trying to scan the probes in an effort to get more information on their alien technology.
Spock, and the majority of the science officers for that matter, were practically having a field day with all the data they were getting. Many crew members were even willingly working double shifts just to help discover more about the strange anomaly. If their data was correct, the scientists believed that it defied many of the 'laws' believed to be true about similar subspace phenomena. If Kirk didn't know any better, he might have said that he caught the glimpse of a small smile on his first officer's face.
The captain secretly enjoyed times like these, when the crew got to indulge their scientific curiosity. There seemed to be a sort of energy coursing through them, exciting the ship down to her hull plating with possibilities of the unknown and pure unbridled discovery. Although he knew he wasn't really needed on missions like this one-and was honestly bored out of his mind-they were his favorite type of missions. On these missions, there never was the pain of losing crew members, having to talk to families about their loved ones which they would never see again. There was no second guessing decisions made in less than seconds, trying to see better possibilities and more options years later. There were no nightmares that would continue to haunt him, reminding him of his mistakes. 'No' Kirk thought, clearing his head, 'Although these missions are the best, those missions were just as necessary'. Kirk was pulled from the darker turn his thoughts had taken when Spock spoke up.
"Captain, I am detecting another vessel emerging from the anomaly."
"On screen, Commander."
Expecting to see another one of the dark pink rectangular probes that had been occasionally coming through for the past couple of days, Kirk was shocked. He watched surprised when a ship vaguely resembling a federation shuttle emerged from the wispy green and purple event horizon. Once it moved away from the funnel shaped corona of the anomaly, his officers scrambled to get readings on it.
The ship had an almost triangular shape and a much sleeker design than any shuttle the captain had ever seen. The front window tessellated to form a design, and the engines of the craft vaguely resembled fins in the way they stuck out from the ship's body. It was painted in the standard federation gray, but with a red stripe running along the side.
"Captain, the craft is broadcasting a distress signal in federation standard. It's definitely one of ours." Uhura announced, sounding slightly baffled.
Kirk stared at the strange ship, the cursive writing saying 'delta flyer' enlarged on screen. While it looked like a federation ship, the style was….unique, to say the least. He didn't need to check the records to know that no federation ship was currently, or ever, built like that.
A beeping noise sounded from Spock's station. "I am detecting one human life sign on board, captain, but it is very weak. If we do not assist them, I do not believe that they have a lot of time left."
Making a quick decision, the captain gave his order. "Very well. Beam them directly to sick bay and tractor the ship into shuttle bay two. Send a couple security officers down to sick bay, just in case."
"Aye keptin" Chekov answered.
After he got confirmations from Chekov and Sulu that both the beaming and the tractoring of the vessel were successful. Kirk stood up.
"Well, I think i'm going to go down to sickbay to check on our 'guest'. Mr. Spock, you have the bridge."
"Aye captain" Spock responded, sitting down in the captain's chair while simultaneously pulling up the readings from the anomaly.
Kirk walked into a rather chaotic scene in sickbay. On his left side there was an andorian crewman holding what looked to be a pretty painful burn on his left arm. He had a lone nurse treating him, who seemed to be a bit distracted. He nodded towards his crewman and winked at the nurse before turning his attention to the right side of the room, where the real action was happening. The security officers Kirk had sent down earlier were standing to the side, relatively at ease once they realized that the patient was not a current threat. Various devices were beeping frantically while completing their scans. McCoy was barking orders at his nurses, of which there were at least three scurrying about place to place. Kirk slightly stood up on his toes to get a better look at the patient they were all flocking around.
He was not able to see her face due to a nurse blocking his sight, but he was able to see her uniform. The majority of it was black except for a large red stripe at the top, going across her shoulders. He could see part of a purple undershirt and a gold and silver starfleet badge over her heart. Once the nurse moved, he was only able to see half of her face because of a large blood flow coming from the right side of her head. From what he could see though, she had auburn hair and he estimated her to be around her early to mid thirties. Kirk tried to sneakily take a few steps closer to get a better look. However, the captain was not as inconspicuous as he thought because Bones quickly noticed his movement.
"Jim, get out of here! This is a sickbay, NOT an interrogation room! Stop loitering, damnit!" McCoy practically shouted before calling on one of his nurses to bring him a dermal regenerator. Kirk took the message and left, making a mental note to come by later, and returned to the bridge.
Meanwhile, in shuttle bay two, Scotty was practically buzzing from excitement. While he was able to determine that it was definitely a federation vessel, it was unlike any starfleet ship that he'd ever seen. From the front window design to the fin like protrusions, the craft definitely had style. And warp engines. They managed to fit a warp engine into a craft that small, which was practically unheard of! And it wasn't just a weak, slow engine like one might expect, but from the look of it, he believed it could even reach speeds as high as warp seven! The Enterprise herself couldn't get much higher than that! It also seemed to have phasers, photon torpedoes, shields, and-to top it all off-was probably highly maneuverable. The whole package rolled into one compact ship! However, his excitement was soon tampered when he tried to access the ship's computer system and its logs.
If he didn't know any better, he'd say the darn thing was sassing him.
Despite trying various bypasses and every trick in the book, his efforts to access the system proved to be fruitless. Each and every time, the computer quipped back with "Unauthorized User Detected: Access Denied".
At least until one curious, and slightly bored (though he would never admit it), Vulcan engineer decided to come on board.
Scotty whipped around at warp speed, hitting his head up against the craft's dashboard when he heard the computer's voice activate.
"Authorized User Detected: Lieutenant Commander Tuvok. Welcome back, Commander."
Quietly grumbling about the bruise he was sure to have, Scotty met the eyes of the equally confused Vulcan. Still maintaining eye contact, the chief engineer flipped open his communicator.
"Scotty to bridge. Captain, I think ya'd better come down here."
Once he got there, Scotty filled Kirk in on the basic happenings. He proposed a hypothesis that due to the ship's internal sensors being damaged in the anomaly that brought it here, it falsely identified the vulcan crewman as 'Lieutenant Commander Tuvok'. Afterwards, Scotty went back to trying to glean information from the delta flyer's computer. The system was now more generous due to recognizing 'Tuvok', but not as revealing as Scotty would have liked. Since he did not have the necessary access codes, a majority of the information was still locked out. This left Kirk to talk to the vulcan, who was still a bit shocked, though it didn't show.
"I don't believe that we're acquainted, what is your name, crewman?"
"Junior Grade Lieutenant Sunak, Sir. I transferred to the Enterprise two weeks ago." The vulcan answered, standing perfectly at attention. Kirk nodded in response.
"So…" the captain began "The system recognized you as a Lieutenant Commander Tuvok..?" Kirk half-asked, trying to solve the mystery and find any connections. The lieutenant seemed to recognize the name and its relation to him.
"Tuvok is my son's name. However…" The vulcan trailed off, looking troubled.
"However..?"
Pulled out of his thoughts, the lieutenant regained his composure. "That is not possible. My son would only have been around seven human years old."
"Would have been?" Kirk inquired, despite sensing his crewman's somber tone. He needed to confirm his suspicions as fact.
"He…" The vulcan flinched slightly. "...perished..when Vulcan was destroyed."
"I see." Kirk replied solemnly, understanding the vulcan's hesitance. Staying on a ship that recognizes you as your dead son must be a painful reminder. "I'm sorry for your loss." Sunak tilted his head in acknowledgment. Kirk looked to the side and sighed, clearing his mind from the regret he still felt over not being able to save the once proud planet.
However, the silence was soon interrupted because of Scotty's muted yell from the front of the flyer. "Get down from there, you! The console's not a bloody chair!"
The moment broken, Kirk spoke up once again. "Well, it seems that our guest doesn't just come from another time, but another reality altogether."
A/N For the purposes of the plot, I had to make a couple minor changes to canon. Since Tuvok was born in 2264 and Vulcan was destroyed in 2258, I had to make him a couple of years older (since vulcan lifespans are twice that of humans, it honestly wouldn't be that much of a difference to him). Also, I put his father in starfleet since Tuvok did say that his parents pushed him into joining starfleet, so it would make sense if they themselves were starfleet officers (and it beats the purpose of all this extrapolation if his father is not on the enterprise). While Sunak is honestly not gonna play that big of a role in the story, I still wanted to try to be as realistic as possible. This is my first story that I'm actually publishing, so please feel free to tell me how crappy my writing is. Constructive criticism is always appreciated. Also, if there's any interactions that you would like to see between the Voyager and Enterprise crew in the future, please tell me and I'll try to write them in!