"Pre-flight checks are in progress, sir. I've got Radinski taking the lead; he could use the experience." Scotty slid the flap door into place and gave it a thump with his fist. "That should hold. Lad's the youngest of eleven children - can you imagine? - an' was always on the bottom of the pile." He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall. "He's got a natural instinct for people, though. Good listener, too." He glanced past Kirk towards the conference room door. "An' seein' as how we're in spacedock, I figure I can spare a few moments."

"Doesn't hurt that the coffee's good and hot." Kirk laughed. "I still have nightmares about that swill you fixed me two months ago during command duty training." He grimaced. "If that's what you engineers all run on, you really are miracle workers." Kirk stroked his chin, mouth firm but eyes twinkling. "Does Doctor McCoy know about your reliance on performance-enhancing substances?"

"We have a deal, Leonard and me," Scott replied, pushing away from the wall. "He dinna pester me about me caffeine intake," he whispered, cupping one hand to his mouth, "and I'll nae breathe a word about where he stashes his...beverages." He winked as they entered the room together.

At the opposite end of the room, the rest of the starship's senior staff were clustered together near a large window overlooking one section of Deep Space Station F-3's docking ring. Uhura stood next to Spock, pointing out a small passenger ship that was parked two slots over. She turned to her left as Chekov remarked while gesticulating with one hand. McCoy bent his head over a tablet, tapping out a message to someone, his forehead furrowed. Sulu inspected a red flowering plant in the corner, one finger stroking the underside of a blossom. His brows quirked as he spied the new arrivals out of the corner of his eye. Straightening, he smiled at Kirk and Scotty. "Captain. Mr. Scott. Good thing you got here. The ambassador was just about to tell us about his negotiations with the Moiteelo."

"Ambassador?" Kirk's mouth twitched. "I just checked my messages five minutes ago. According to the latest personnel/passenger transfer list, we're expecting an astrophysicist and his preteen daughter, a weapons control specialist, and three computer technicians. No diplomats." He shrugged. "Gotta love Starfleet bureaucracy."

"Your tone suggests something other than love, Jim," a gravelly voice replied with just a hint of amusement. A familiar Vulcan stepped around Chekov until he was standing between the crowd and the two men who had just entered.

"Wrinkly Spock," Scotty muttered.

Kirk elbowed the engineer in the ribs and hurried over to greet the elder Spock with the Vulcan salute, which was returned. "Welcome, Ambassador. We weren't expecting you."

"Didn't you get the message I sent you?" When Kirk's eyes widened slightly, Spock Prime tapped the right side of his head. "Ah. Next time, I shall use a more reliable form of communication."

"Human brain, remember? So. Passenger or visitor?"

"Visitor." The ambassador looked back over his shoulder at the passenger ship Uhura had indicated previously. A repair drone hovered over a section of hull plating that was dangling from the side of the ship. Several other plates were blackened. "The T'Sola-Kho suffered a malfunction in its shields that caused a feedback loop, leading to the damage you see before you. I am told we will be docked here for four days, at least." He smiled. "I hope my presence here will not cause any problems."

Kirk smiled. "Are you kidding? It's always good to have you aboard," he continued, gesturing toward the table, "but as you can see, we're about to have a staff meeting." At the word "meeting", the senior staff members began to move away from the windows and towards the conference table, still engaged in light conversation while occasionally glancing over at Kirk and Spock Prime.

The captain walked beside Spock Prime in the direction of the door. "Would you mind waiting in my office until we're done here? Or maybe you'd prefer to visit the astronomy lab. We just had a new telescope retrofitted-"

Spock Prime held up a hand. "Actually, if you would permit it, I would like to observe your gathering." He gestured towards a chair at the end of the table. "I have found watching you interact with your crew, including my young counterpart, to be rather pleasant."

"Kind of like going back home, you mean." Kirk pulled out his chair and indicated that Spock Prime should sit as well.

"Back in space and time."

"Or having an out-of-body experience." McCoy took the seat between Kirk and young Spock, eying the latter before shifting his gaze to the ambassador. "It's not like anything we discuss today is going to take you by surprise. Heck, you've probably already attended this same meeting in your own universe."

"Perhaps, with one exception. I distinctly do not recall having had this conversation before, doctor." Spock Prime raised a single brow.

"Duh," McCoy exclaimed, eliciting laughter from the rest of the crew, except for the younger Spock, who exhaled softly.

After calling the meeting to order, Kirk asked Uhura to read the minutes of the previous meeting. From time to time, he would glance down the table to where Spock Prime sat. Emotions flickered in the elderly Vulcan's eyes as the communications officer summarized the discussion they'd participated in a week earlier.

"...resulting vote was unanimously in favor of converting a section on deck eleven into a tactical simulation room." Uhura folded her hands in front of her. "The meeting was adjourned and refreshments were served."

Sulu licked his lips. "I can still taste the maple walnut ice cream." He held up one hand as Chekov opened his mouth. "And so help me, Pavel, if you tell us it was invented in Russia, I'll tear out my hair."

"I vasn't going to say that." Chekov smiled sheepishly, his face the picture of innocence. "But now that you mention it-" He ducked out of the way as Sulu's hand sailed past his head.

"Come now, laddie." Scotty gave a look of mock offence. "Everyone knows that ice cream is an Edinburgh creation. Right, Nyota?"

Uhura held her hands up. "Oh, no, boys. I'm staying out of this one," she laughed, pouring herself a cup of coffee from the carafe.

"Jim, I'd like to know what you plan to do about replacing Dr. Stromberg." McCoy looked up from his tablet, where he'd been doodling a geometric design in the lower right hand corner of the page. "Dentistry isn't my specialty."

Spock folded his hands together. "And bioluminescence is not my forte. Yet I was able to substitute for Ensign Collier for the duration of her leave by consulting her notes prior to the survey mission as well as several texts from the ship's database."

McCoy frowned, his stylus pausing mid-stroke, and pointed at Spock. "Anyone can take samples and perform resonance scans. Performing a complicated dental procedure is another matter." He eyed Kirk. "I also have a suspicion that two members of our crew have been nursing secret toothaches for the last month or so."

"Could you not just order them to report to sickbay, Doctor?" Spock pressed.

"Or drag them?" This from Kirk, who grabbed a handful of his own collar and twisted it, yanking it to one side as his eyes rolled back in his head.

McCoy shook his head. "I'd rather not have to. They've never caused me any trouble before." He moved the tip of his stylus in a circle. "Just promise you'll put a bug in Personnel's ear for me. Preferably before we head out."

"I'll take care of it, Bones," Kirk assured him. He shot a glance over at Spock Prime. The ambassador had been watching their interactions with a fond look in his eyes, even as he appeared to be staring beyond them at another scene from his own past. "Getting back to the agenda, our first order of business is planning our itinerary for the next month."

He folded his hands together. "Barring any unforeseen circumstances, that is. After we depart F-3, Starfleet has asked us to transport a shipment of ghenoride drill bits to Toualt II-"

"Mmmm." Spock Prime's brows dipped in a concerned expression.

"What is it?" Uhura asked, brows quirked.

"I can't tell you," the ambassador replied gruffly.

Kirk paused, then continued. "-to resupply the mining camps there. Mr. Chekov has already plotted the swiftest course through the Semple Gap and past the outer edge of the Iora system."

"Hmm."

"Did you say something, ambassador?" Spock asked. The other officers leaned towards the end of the table, waiting for his answer.

Spock Prime waved a hand dismissively. "Never mind. Please, continue."

Kirk reached for his coffee and took a sip. "Thank you. Unloading the cargo should only take a couple of hours. After that, next stop is the Veu-Masgar Cluster-"

Spock Prime covered his mouth with one hand. "Ah."

"Ah what?" Chekov asked, glancing at Sulu, who shrugged.

Spock Prime opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it and clamped his lips shut. "I can't tell you."

Kirk gripped his tablet tightly. "Long range sensors indicate a steady increase in radiation emissions. We'll spend a week studying the cluster's effects." He scrolled down the page. "From there, we'll proceed to Stengalt VI, where we have been invited to participate in a local harvest festival. I'm sure it'll be a welcome break after..." He glanced up. Spock Prime shook his head back and forth, mouthing the word "No."

Kirk sighed. "Moving on...Professor Ambrose Gibson has offered to give us a tour of his new medical laboratory on Mundo XI. As I recall, he taught neurology at your alma mater, Bones, am I right?" At McCoy's nod, he opened his mouth to continue. "I've heard great things about his experiments with neural implants..."

"Oooooh," Spock Prime interrupted, clenching one hand into a fist. He looked at McCoy with pity.

Kirk stood up and leaned forward over the table. "Does any of this sound familiar to you, Ambassador?" The Vulcan did not reply. Running his fingers through his hair, Kirk squeezed his eyes shut. "Look, do me a favor, okay? Either tell me what happened to your Enterprise when they did what we're about to do and why we should stay as far away as possible, or kindly cut out all the "mmm"ing and "ahhhh"ing."

The Vulcan's face flushed green. "Excuse me."

Kirk inhaled and blew the air out of his mouth. "After all, as I recall, it was you who once told us that under no circumstances could you divulge details about our counterparts in your reality. You had to allow events to progress as normally as possible."

A nod of assent. "I did say that, yes."

Scotty tapped his fingers on the table. "Uh, sir? Canna we just ask him about our upcoming military exercises with the Indomitable? I've been having second thoughts about those firing maneuvers..." He leaned forward and stared down the table. Spock Prime's face was a mask of neutrality, aside from a slight downturn of one corner of his mouth.

"Vhat about the first contact with the Sybavians? They've been deweloping varp drive for the last seven years. A successful test is imminent." Chekov's shoulders slumped as Spock Prime looked away. "According to observation reports, their society is quite varlike."

Kirk flopped into his chair. "Bones?"

McCoy leaned on one hand, his expression pensive. "I just keep thinking about Ambrose. He was always an ambitious man...but being out on the frontier alone for years at a time changes you. I wouldn't mind a heads-up."

The younger Spock shook his head. "We must resist the temptation."

"Now wait a minute. You asked him about Khan!" McCoy protested. A chorus of "yeahs" sounded around the table.

Spock waited until the noise died down. "Yes, I did. And he told me nothing revealing. While Ambassador Spock's knowledge would be helpful to us in much the way that military intelligence can aid Starfleet, we cannot consult him on every matter. As we have already seen, certain events have progressed differently in our reality than in his, and as such, his information would be useless, even harmful. Furthermore, if we fail to do something which must be done because of his warnings, lives might be needlessly lost."

Uhura placed her hand on his, squeezing it. "He has a point, guys. We have to live our own lives, not his."

McCoy frowned. "If we do what we already did in the other reality, we are living his life. Making his mistakes all over again. Killing the same people all over again." He let out a soul-deep sigh. "Without him, we just kill different people. Maybe make things worse." One hand rubbed his forehead. "Great. Now I have a headache."

"Are we all agreed then?" Kirk asked. After a moment, everyone reluctantly nodded. Spock Prime pushed his chair back and stood up slowly. "Where are you going, sir?"

"I think," the elderly Vulcan began, heading towards the doorway, "it might be better for everyone if I leave now. I believe I will visit the astronomy lab, after all." He had just exited the room when the wall comm whistled, attracting the attention of the remaining personnel.

"Bridge to Captain Kirk."

"Go ahead, bridge," Kirk replied.

"Sir, we've just received a distress call from an unknown craft. Long range sensors indicate it's coming from the Pi Delta system." Fingers tapped on a screen. "We're the closest ship in the sector, about ten minutes away."

"Set course then. I'll be there shortly." Kirk pushed in his chair and collected his tablet from the table as the rest of the senior staff did likewise, the low hum of their conversations audible.

"Ho, ho, heh, heh, heh." Spock Prime's laughter reverberated down the corridors, interrupting them. "Oh, no."

McCoy shot Kirk and Spock a concerned look. "I don't like the sound of that."