Chapter 2

Uhura looked at the captain Kirk, a stunned expression on her face. "Captain, how could..."

"I don't know lieutenant," the captain looked frazzled, "Mr. Spock, what can you tell me about what just happened?"

"I have confirmed that the signal did indeed come from the Enterprise. It has the same subspace frequency as this ship. It is, in essence, a twin."

"A twin? How is that possible?"

"It is probable to assume that the temporal energy within this nebula has affected the ship in some unknown way. The only way to learn anything more is to reroute power from the main deflector dish to sensors, but that would put the ship at risk."

Mr. Sulu looked up from his console, "Sir, a ship is approaching," everyone looked up at the main viewer. It as as if they were looking into a mirror. They could make out every detail of the ship, every identical detail.

The other Enterprise aligned itself in front of the ship

"I have run a full analysis of the other ship and sensors confirm that it is identical all the way down to the molecular level sir," Spock stood with his arms clasped behind his back.

"Could the sensors be malfunctioning?"

"Negative captain, I have checked all systems; there are no malfunctions."

"I want the senior staff to meet in the briefing room," Kirk paused as he pressed one of the comm buttons on the arm of his chair. "Scotty, I want you to lock tractor beams on the ship, it doesn't go anywhere until I say so."

"Aye sir," came Scott's reply.

A few minutes later, the senior staff sat around a triangular table, looking at an image of the other ship on the small view screen at the center of the table.

"McCoy, what do you have?"

The doctor sat up and addressed the others, "I ran bioscans of the life signs, and they match perfectly with those aboard this ship, right down to the individual atom. They are exact duplicates of our crew with only one exception." He stopped as he pressed several buttons on the medical tricorder on the table in front of him. A schematic appeared on the view-screen, replacing the image of the other ship.

"The brain cells of every person on that ship have deteriorated more than those of the crew of this ship. Based on the rate of decay, that crew is about three weeks older that our crew."

Spock interrupted, "Confirmed captain. I have just received the results of a quantum dating analysis of the other ship's hull that has determined it is two to three weeks older than the hull of our ship." He held a tricorder in his left hand, that was displaying the quantum dating analysis.

Everyone looked at Kirk, who in turn looked at Uhura, "Lieutenant, I assume you tried to contact the other ship?"

"Yes sir, their comm system seems to be offline."

The captain pressed a button on the small panel in front of him and the view screen changed once more. It now displayed an image of the engineering section.

"Scotty," There was a brief silence and then Scotty's face filled the screen. " Can you get a transporter lock on someone from that ship?"

"Aye sir, but it will take a good bit of power to cut through the interference this nebula is creating."

"Reroute all available power to the transporters, I'll meet you in the transporter room," he said as he stood. "Bones, you're with me. Dismissed."

Everyone filed out of the room. Kirk and McCoy walked directly to the turbolift. The doors hissed open and the pair entered, Kirk saying, "Transporter room."

The doors closed and the lift made it's descent. Within the minute, the captain and the doctor where walking through the door to the transporter room.

Scotty greeted them as the door slid closed behind them.

"I've got a lock on one of them, but I can't read the biosign through all of the interference. It could be anyone."

Kirk nodded and Scotty began the transport procedure. A loud humming noise issued from the transporter pad as Scott pulled the levers down. There was a high pitched whine and a yellow cloud of energy appeared, hovering over the pad.

Slowly the cloud began to take form, looking more and more like a man. The cloud began flickering and almost vanished, but Scott managed to correct the problem.

Finally, the man materialized. Just as this happened, Spock came though the door of the transporter room, looking up at the man on the transporter pad. Spock rarely came close to displaying emotion, but it was hard to contain the emotion he was feeling now. He was looking at what looked like a clone of himself.

Both Spocks looked at each other, raised an eyebrow and said, "Fascinating."