Hearts and Minds: Epilogue

[lah_mrh]

Fandom: Star Trek Reboot (although numerous references to TOS)
Pairing: Kirk Prime/Spock Prime, Spock/Uhura, eventual Kirk/Spock
Rating: PG-13
Beta: secret_chord25, many thanks.
Summary: When the Enterprise encounters a ship caught in the Nexus, their rescue attempt beams aboard someone unexpected; Kirk Prime. Kirk and Spock are forced to confront what their counterparts' relationship might mean for their own.
Notes: I am planning to write a sequel to this at some point, but it'll likely be a while - I've been working on this fic since November.
Words: ~900/33000

 

Jim stands on the bridge of the Enterprise. His counterpart asked if there was anything he could do for Jim as a sort of ‘thank you’, and this was the only thing he could think of. “I never thought I’d be here again,” he says, glancing up at Spock.

 

“I am gratified that you are,” Spock replies warmly, and Jim gently brushes their fingers together.

 

He turns back to survey the bridge crew; he and Spock watch for a few moments as the younger versions of themselves and their friends go about their duties. “It’s strange. Everything’s so different, and yet so similar.”

 

“It is a fascinating experiment into the relative roles of nature and nurture,” Spock responds, and Jim grins. Ever the scientist.

 

“Y’know,” he remarks, “you once told me it was my destiny to be captain of the Enterprise. I guess you were right.”

 

And it is my destiny to be at your side.

 

They both watch their counterparts interact for a moment, continuing the conversation via telepathy. Do you think they’ll be okay?

 

I would like to believe so. I don’t think their path will be an easy one.

 

Harder than ours?

 

Different from ours. They are different people.

 

Jim watches as Kirk’s hand rests on the younger Spock’s shoulder for just a fraction too long. Not that different.

 

Do you envy them?

 

The question is unexpected, and Jim has to think about it. Sometimes I wish we’d figured it out earlier, but no. I don’t envy them. Their counterparts may have got there a lot faster than he and Spock did, but they have already run into trouble because of it.

 

Spock seems satisfied with that answer. We will arrive at Babel in approximately 1.87 hours.

 

Jim watches as he rubs absently at his temple. Are you all right?

 

You worry too much, Jim. It is merely a slight headache. He can feel Spock’s annoyance and affection. You would know if there was anything seriously wrong.

 

You can’t tell me that if it’d been me, you wouldn’t have been just as worried.

 

As he thought, Spock has no answer to that. Jim can remember times when it was him, and, in his opinion, Spock was much more worried and protective.

 

“I must gather my belongings,” Spock says out loud. “You are welcome to stay here.”

 

Jim considers it for a moment. “I think I will. I’ll come down in a little while.” As Spock turns, Jim grabs his arm. “Try to stay out of trouble.”

 

His bondmate’s eyes light up with amusement. “I believe that is usually my line.”

 

Jim watches him leave, then turns back to the viewscreen, letting the familiar sight wash over him. He stands there for a long while before it occurs to him that if he wants to speak with his counterpart alone, now is the perfect time.

 

He steps down to stand next to the captain’s chair. Kirk looks up at him expectantly. “Can we talk?” Jim asks.

 

Kirk looks surprised. “Yeah, sure.” He stands. “Spock, you have the conn. I’ll be back shortly.”

 

The younger Spock looks up. “Understood, Captain.” Jim notices the same undercurrent to the word ‘Captain’ as his own Spock used.

 

In the turbolift, Kirk turns to him with interest. Jim takes a deep breath, and begins to speak quickly.

 

“Right. Don’t tell Spock, but there are two things I need you to know. Number one: don’t let Sam go to Deneva.” He holds up a hand as Kirk begins to speak. “I can’t tell you why, just keep him away from there. And number two; if you ever meet a man called Khan, lock the bastard up and throw away the key.” Jim’s hands clench involuntarily into fists. He is aware that he shouldn’t be doing this, promised he wouldn’t, but he can’t bring himself to care. Those two situations robbed him of the people closest to him, and he cannot, will not, watch as it happens again. “Promise me.”

 

Kirk looks slightly confused. “Okay; if it’s that important.”

 

Job done, Jim relaxes. “That’s all I wanted to say.” He smiles. “Well, that, and good luck.”

 

His counterpart smiles back. “Thanks.” He sighs. “I might need it.”

 

The turbolift doors open and Jim claps him on the shoulder as he steps out. “You’ll figure it out.” He turns and raises a hand as the doors close again, then heads down the corridor to find Spock.

 

* * *

 

They arrive at Babel a little over one-and-a-half hours later. Jim and Spock walk down to the transporter room together, and Jim hopes that he’ll have a chance to visit this Enterprise again someday. It isn’t his ship anymore, but it’s still the Enterprise.

 

Their younger selves have come down to see them off. Jim watches as they exchange glances.

 

Kirk steps forward. “We wanted to thank you.”

 

Jim grins. “Happy to help.” He holds out a hand. “Take good care of her,” he says warmly, letting his gaze wander around the room.

 

“I will,” Kirk promises, and Jim recognises the shine in his eyes as they shake hands.

 

They turn to see the two Spocks exchanging Vulcan salutes. “It won’t always be easy,” Jim says quietly. He loves Spock, but there are times when he could have cheerfully strangled the man. “But you have my word that it’ll always be worth it.”

 

Kirk nods.

 

Jim and Spock take their places on the transporter platform, and the last thing Jim sees as they dissolve into particles of light is their counterparts touching fingers in a Vulcan kiss.

 

 

Comments

[lila-blue-b.livejournal.com]

You're right, it is my opinion, which I thought was implied, but I guess it was not. You asked why I disagree with that, so I felt obliged to answer truthfully.

Personally, I don't consider Enterprise to be exactly canon. Too many inconsistencies with previously established canon for what I feel were really dumb reasons. I generally toss it out when presented with an alternative, just like the cartoon series & some of the inconsistencies in early TOS episodes. For example, for me, I would never believe that female Vulcans go into pon farr just like males, despite Enterprise's claim that they do.

But looking at what Enterprise says about the subject at hand... It's set in the 2150s. No Vulcans & Humans had been romantically involved with each other 'til then, no one had ever experimented, so no one knew if or how the DNA would mix. What happened in the episode in question was a third party took T'Pol's and Tucker's DNA without their knowledge or consent & created a girl using an imperfect cloning technique, which resulted in the child dying around 6 months of age due to genetic problems. That the creation of a Vulcan/Human hybrid would require medical intervention was never conclusively indicated one way or another in canon to my knowledge. The exact quote from Enterprise is "Human DNA and Vulcan DNA, Phlox says there's no medical reason why they can't combine. So if a Vulcan and a Human ever decided to have a child, it'd probably be okay." That's the conclusion of Enterprise on the subject of Vulcan/Human compatibility. And, to me, it would be implausible, if the help of geneticists was necessary, that Vulcan geneticists 70 years later, with lots of time to develop a better understanding of things in the meantime, would knowingly create a sterile male child, while carefully and purposefully splicing Sarek's and Amanda's DNA, when they could have just as easily created a fertile female child instead.

I've researched this stuff quite a bit, trying to understand what canon says about it, since getting into Trekfandom because the "well, of course, Spock is sterile" thing I keep seeing all over the internet has bothered me a lot since I first read of the notion in a kirkspock discussion post tbh. When Spock being sterile is mentioned off hand in a nothing-depends-on-it-but-it's-there sort of way, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me the way the fanon about Vulcans having a second ridge on their penis is to some people (not to me, I really don't care about that, but I know it drives some people crazy like nothing else). It has, frankly, ruined stories for me (though not yours), so I mention it as being something I disagree with because it irks me a lot. It's a fanon thing that seems to me to be based more on an understanding of real world biology than what's been presented in canon (and while I wasn't in the fandom until 10 months ago, I'm a life-long Trekkie). If it were a plot point or the focus of a story, it wouldn't bother me as much or at all, depending on the story's purpose... In that case, it even might be quite interesting. It's that I see it so often presented as a simple fact of Spock's existence as if it were as obvious as the color of his hair, as if it were just as canonical as that, that makes me crazy. I know I'm nuts. We are talking about something that is science fiction here. I've also heard that in the real world, warp drive and time travel either by sling shooting a starship around the sun or going through a singularity all wouldn't work either, and yet these things do routinely work, and work well, in Star Trek...

I don't mean to get all srs bsnss on you here. I know that this isn't really... Sorry...

[lah-mrh.livejournal.com]

It's that I see it so often presented as a simple fact of Spock's existence as if it were as obvious as the color of his hair

Really? I've usually seen the opposite - fics that never mention the possibility of him being sterile, even when it'd be relevant.

I do get how irritating it can be when everyone takes something as canon when there's no evidence either way, though - it's how I feel about the idea that NuKirk was on Tarsus IV.

[lila-blue-b.livejournal.com]

Really, I do see it an awful lot.

I can understand that. Another thing I liked about your fic was that you pointed out that Nu!Kirk wasn't on Tarsus IV. I thought that was an interesting difference between them and it fit really well. I don't mind when he is on Tarsus IV in a story the way that you do, but I like how you point out this other likely difference in their life experiences because he very well might not have been there this time around. We really don't know much about the circumstances that found him there in the Prime Universe to begin with and since his father's absence in his family's life changed so much about the years when Jim was growing up, it is very plausible that he wasn't there at all and no real reason to assume that he was. I love that because so many details of both the Kirks' childhoods that are open to speculation because there just isn't very much established canon on it.

Speaking of Tarsus IV, reading your fic reminded me that I had to do my mod duties at tarsus_iv_fic and start up the challenge that the other mod and I had been planning. So thank you very much for that! I would have completely forgotten that I was supposed to do it, which would have been really bad.