Author's Note: I was reading the Epilogue of Diane Carey's Final Frontier where it says that while James Kirk was at the Academy the ship his father was on mysteriously disappeared, and this came to me. According to a comic series called Star Trek: Early Voyages there actually was a USS Tiberius that Robert April (who won't be in this story but will be mentioned) was captain of before he became captain of the Enterprise.
When the phenomenon that resembled a lightning storm in space was reported once again, and the Enterprise made all haste to reach it, the crew were prepared for almost anything. The captain however was not and could not be prepared for what happened however. The ship that came out of the anomaly wasn't a heavily damaged Narada, or a similar ship seeking revenge as the crew and the Federation had half expected when they had sent the Enterprise, but was something else entirely.
The ship that came out of the anomaly was an older model Federation starship whose markings identified it as the USS Tiberius-A. There was no such ship in the Starfleet registry however. Before the Enterprise could hail the other vessel to see what the hell was going on and why the hell a ship that by all rights didn't exist had appeared before them, the Tiberius took the initiative.
"Chris? It's Eddy. We seem to have gotten caught in weird anomaly that knocked our warp core out of alignment and need a tow to the nearest Starbase. If you start in on the Blackbeard jokes again, I'm gonna strangle you. By the way, when did you have the time to get a complete overhaul?" Greeted the captain of the Tiberius, a man who many of you would have already guessed by the Blackbeard comment was named Edward Teach.
After the cryptic and less than formal greeting, the bridge crew of the Enterprise looked at each-other in confusion, all except for Spock who simply raised one eyebrow in silence. This had not been how they'd expected the encounter to go, though they had few if any expectations in that regard.
"Uh, you're not Chris." The captain of the Tiberius eloquently stated once he got a good look at who he was talking to.
"I am James T. Kirk Captain of the Starship Enterprise." Captain Kirk replied coolly.
At this statement, a vaguely familiar looking man in his mid-fifties with graying red hair and brown eyes looked over and laughed.
"Getting delusions of grandeur there Jimmy? I'd say that it was rather nice of Pike to let you stay aboard the Enterprise over the Summer - I wonder how Robert managed to wrangle that one - considering how you're so obsessed with it, but taking his seat is a bit much. Now shove off and get Chris Pike on the line son." the man said while looking like he was going to break a couple of ribs from holding in his laughter.
This was met with snickers from most of the bridge crew of the Enterprise who'd served under Pike for all of an hour. The captain however, was not nearly as amused.
"If you wish to speak with Admiral Pike, I suggest you call Earth." Captain Kirk said icily.
"Admiral? Crap. It looks like we traveled through time. Congratulations George, it looks like your son is the youngest captain in the fleet. He can't be older than thirty." The Captain of the Tiberius stated. "Sorry for giving you a hard time kid. A tow to the nearest starbase would be greatly appreciated."
It was at this point that Spock handed his scans of the other vessel to his captain who quickly reviewed them.
"Who are you? You better start talking real quick, because our scans indicate you have a Romulan aboard and I won't hesitate to shoot through the rest of you to get him." Captain Kirk said coldly, knowing that Romulan + Lightning storm in space = Trouble that he didn't want to deal with again after it had killed his father, destroyed Vulcan and nearly destroyed Earth the last time. "Having someone make a poor attempt at impersonating my father didn't add any points in your favor either."
"There's a Romulan aboard?!" the captain of the Tiberius exclaimed, seemingly shocked by this revelation.
"Oh, you're talking about Cale. He defected to the Federation when me and Robert took the Enterprise out to rescue the S.S. Rosenburg and ended up taking an unplanned detour to the other side of the Neutral Zone." The man who was "impersonating" Captain Kirk's father said casually, completely aware of the bombshell he'd just dropped.
"The Father of Federation Justice is a Romulan?!" the captain of the Tiberius said, looking as if his brain was going to explode. Considering the reputation Romulans had in just about every universe, it probably would.
Meanwhile aboard the Enterprise, Spock's left eyebrow skyrocketed towards his hairline.
"Captain, I do believe we are dealing with beings from an earlier point in the timeline from which my older counterpart came." Spock said. "The man who may be your father's counterpart mentioned that the Enterprise took part in a rescue of the SS Rosenburg. While that could be considered impossible as the Rosenburg disaster took place in 2243 and construction on the Enterprise was started much later and only completed earlier this year, my counterpart had indicated that the Enterprise of his timeline was completed much earlier and built along a design from one of the earliest drafts of the plans for the Constitution Class vessel. He further indicated that your father's counterpart had served as Tactical Officer under the ship's first captain, one Robert April."
"Well, that sounds all well and good, but I don't believe it." Kirk said.
"The facts fit the situation at hand." Spock said. "The theory is logical."
"Spock also told me that my father lived to see me become captain, and this man seems to think that I'm a kid." Captain Kirk said vehemently denying the possibility "That, and my father didn't have red hair."
The red haired man squirmed at this and muttered "I quit bleaching it at Starbase 2 when Reed put pink in the bottle."
At this, Spock's eyebrow rose. This would be an excellent test for his theory. The Enterprise had recently been to Starbase 5. They had arrested former Starfleet officer turned smuggler named Drake Reed who had once served at Starbase 2 there.
"Captain, I have an idea as to how to determine the accuracy of my theory." Spock said.
"By all means, I'd love to hear it." Captain Kirk growled.
"I would ask the captain of the Tiberius to give us a general listing of all the Starfleet personnel they know of, their postings and any service records they have on hand." Spock said.
"Why?" Kirk asked.
"I cannot tell you now, but I will after I review the data I am given." Spock replied. "Suffice to say, it should prove or disprove my theory which has altered in accepting the possibility that they are from a timeline alternate to that of my counterpart."
Three hours later after Spock had sifted through the data that the captain of the Tiberius-A had provided, Kirk sat in the main briefing room with all of the other department heads.
"After reviewing the information I have been given - limited though it is - I am 95 percent certain that my theory is correct." Spock said.
"What about the other five percent?" Kirk asked.
"I have analyzed the other ship's shielding and weapons capabilities, and if they try anything on the way to Starbase 10 we can deal with it quite easily, and with a minimal loss of life on our part." Spock said.
"What makes you think that we'll tow them to Starbase 10?" Kirk asked.
"Other than the fact that the other ship is indeed a Federation vessel whether or not those aboard are actually Starfleet officers?" Spock replied.
"Good point." Kirk said with a sigh.
"I initially had some difficulty accessing the files handed over as the other ship seems to be using an alternate computing format that was invented by Richard Daystrom rather than the one pioneered by T'Arda of Vulcan that is currently in use by Starfleet, further adding credibility to my theory, as the fact that Starfleet considered using Daystrom's breakthrough in 2243 is relatively unknown." Spock began. "After I gained access to the files - which were the general information anyone of sufficient rank could access should they chose rather than the confidential files kept by a commanding officer - I separated them into three categories. Those whose names don't match the names attached to the same service numbers in our database indicating that they did not join Starfleet, those who either entered different fields or were given different postings, and those whose records of service matched almost perfectly."
"Well?" Dr. McCoy asked.
"The numbers in each category appear to consistently line up with the theory that the ship did indeed come from an alternate timeline." Spock replied.
Captain Kirk sighed.
"Well, it looks like I'll have to give them a tow." he said. "Scotty, could you get everything ready to be underway in an hour?"
"Aye." Scotty said.
With that, the group got up and prepared to leave the conference room.
"Captain, there was one rather interesting item that was sent over that had no bearing on the issue at hand." Spock said "It was a disciplinary report from the Academy with the words 'You're grounded' written on it in handwriting that matches that of George Samuel Kirk Sr. formerly of the USS Kelvin."
Edited 2-16-13