Constantine was talking to a different Kirk now, one who was three light years away on routine charting, on a different, much smaller Enterprise.

"You're sure?" this Kirk was saying. "You're absolutely sure?"

"It's not impossible that they're fake," Constantine replied, "but… damn, they're so much like you. Bit younger, mind," he added, looking over the more careworn eyes and face of this Kirk, his Kirk.

"Ha," Kirk smiled. "Great, I've forgotten what I was like when I was younger."

"I haven't" Constantine smiled back.

"We're on our way," Kirk said. "Who's he got with him?"

"Spock and McCoy," Constantine replied. "Good picks for this sort of thing."

"Yeah," Kirk said. "I'll bring them too. Should make for a… what is it you Brits say? A 'laugh?'"

"Something like that, yeah," Constantine smiled.

"Well then," Kirk smiled. "Should be only a matter of half an hour."

--

James T. Kirk looked around the seemingly miniscule vessel. The bridge. This was the bridge.

No way.

"It's… colourful," McCoy said from beside him. "Very… colourful."

"The colours would appear to have no functional purpose other than to… decorate," Spock added.

Kirk said nothing, afraid that he would choke on his words.

"Captain," Spock added, "I must advise you not to mention Nero or the Narada attack, or my other self."

"Why the hell not?" McCoy asked. "If they can prevent the destruction of Romulus…"

"Then that will create yet another alternate future," Spock cautioned. "Or worse. We have no way of knowing the exact effects."

"I wonder what's taking Constantine so long," Kirk wondered.

"Gentlemen?" Constantine's voice came from the conference room doorway. "Welcome to the Maverick," he added. He indicated the dedication plaque with his left hand, pointing at it. The plaque was one of the newer ones, with a list of the admiralty and staff who worked on her design, and a ships motto; 'Each man is a spark in the darkness. It flashes into existence, burns for a moment, then dies, to be replaced with newer and brighter sparks.' Jackson had picked it after they'd upgraded; said it represented his worldview perfectly. Constantine didn't really mind, and the crew took some level of amusement from their science officers weirdness.

"Nice little ship," McCoy drawled. "I bet Scotty would love to look 'er over."

"Montgomery Scott?" Constantine asked. "I bet he would. Now, I imagine you chaps have a fair few questions…"

"Starting with your emblem," Kirk said, indicating the parallelogram on Constantine's chest. Constantine looked at it, then looked back at Kirk.

"They don't have mission patches where you come from?" he asked. Spock raised an eyebrow.

"They were discarded in the twenty two thirties," he said, "and replaced by the standard arrowhead from the USS Kelvin."

"The Kelvin?" Constantine asked. "Oh yeah, I remember. The ship Admiral Robau commanded, the one the Enterprise assignment patch used to belong to. What made them adopt the Kelvin symbol?"

"In our universe, the Kelvin was destroyed," Spock said. "It was adopted to commemorate the death of the ship and her Captain."

"Oh," Constantine said. "Shame."

"Look," Kirk said, snappishly "while we're here, Scotty would kill me if I didn't get some figures down about this thing. So…"

"So you want some technical data," Constantine nodded. "Right, well, it's a Constitution class heavy cruiser, crew complement four hundred and thirty…"

--

Twenty three minutes later.

The Enterprise command chair was crap, Scotty decided. He was uncomfortable, bored, and desperate for something vaguely interesting to happen.

"Chekov," he said randomly, "scan the entire area for Klingons, and if you find any, set course, maximum warp, then when we get there blast 'em to hell."

Chekov looked at him as if he was insane, but initiated the scan to humour the mad Scotsman. What he found surprised him.

"Sair," he said, "another sheep is coming in."

"Another ship?" Scotty asked.

"It registers as the USS Enterprise, sair," Chekov continued. "But… that…"

Scotty leant back.

"Bugger me," he said.

"Do we tell the Keptin, sair?" Chekov asked.

"Let it be a surprise," Scotty replied.

--

USS Enterprise (prime).

Captain James T. Kirk, Commander Spock, and Dr McCoy were making their way to the transporter room.

"Why do I have to come?" McCoy asked.

"Because you're already there," Kirk replied. "It's good to meet yourself."

"I don't want to meet myself," McCoy said. "I have enough trouble with myself! If that makes any sense…"

"Perfect sense, Doctor," Spock said. "But do not worry. No doubt these alternate selves will be sufficiently different to us to prevent any discomfort on your part."

Kirk looked out a port at the other Enterprise. As Constantine had said, it was bigger, bolder, brasher and more heavily armed than his, while also being sleeker and silver. He didn't like it. This was his ship, and his crew, and he didn't like the thought that there might be exact duplicates. But then, like Spock said – they might be totally different.

Except Constantine would have said that.

When they reached the transporter room, Kirk could only snap out; ''energise.''

--

Constantine smiled when Jackson whispered that Kirk and his away team were here. He walked over to the alternate Kirk and co, who were talking with Johan, and tapped Kirk on the shoulder.

"Someone's coming who I think you should meet," he said. Kirk looked at him – and then the door to the bridge opened…

And James Kirk stepped out.

"James T. Kirk," Constantine smiled. "Meet James T. Kirk."