This is Quite Illogical

[Spock]

"At the time of the hearing I was an instructor at the Academy; however, I had achieved the rank of commander and served as first officer to Captain Pike whenever his vessel was called to duty." Spock inclined his head fractionally toward Kirk. "Eventually, you received a commendation for the manipulation of the exam in my universe also."

Spock had not gotten the opportunity to talk more to his elder counterpart. He had been doubtful of what useful information could be obtained from such a conversation, considering their alternate timelines. But he was still curious.

This Kirk sounded as if his universe was very similar to the elder Spock Spock had already met. Of course there had been no Nero. And from what this Kirk said it sounded as though the Spock of his universe never had or had moved on from instructing. Spock wondered how this Kirk and his other self had met in this Kirk's universe, just as this Kirk wondered how they had met in his own.

Instead, Spock opted to inquire after more useful information. "You have been a captain for some time now. Am I correct in my assertion? You stated other methods and phenomena resulting in time travel. I confess a curiosity as to the nature of these occurrences. Though they not be useful to us at present, it may prove to buttress my understanding of time in general."

[James T. Kirk]

"A few years," Kirk replied. After all, he was still the youngest captain in Starfleet history, and he was only 34 now. "Frankly, they've all been accidents, or maneuvers performed under great need working on theoretical knowledge. As far as I know, we're only just beginning to refine the techniques for practical use. The first time it happened it was a side-effect of cold starting the Enterprise's warp drive. The second was intentional after an encounter with a black star sent us 300 years into the past. Actually, you figured that out, Mr. Spock. And it's your calculations which are now being studied to see if the process is viable in a broader sense."

Kirk paused for a moment, as he attempted to convince himself that the Guardian of Forever was irrelevant. He didn't like talking about that. But then again...

"There was one other incident," he said, carefully phrasing it in the neutral past though the memory lingered. "A... portal, of sorts, on an abandoned planet we discovered. It was a gateway to every time, every dimension. It occurs to me, Mr. Spock, that the situation we find ourselves in has much more in common with that incident than the crude mechanics we've been able to harness on the Enterprise."

((Thank goodness for Memory Alpha.))

[Spock]

((Memory Alpha is awesome! Although it didn't tell me how Spock was an instructor but serving on the Enterprise at the same time. However I'm aware that people in the navy can teach at a naval academy but in emergencies will assume their rank aboard their assigned vessel and go to war. Which is what happened in STXI? Except I'm still unclear as to how the vessel gets completely outfitted [with a crew], whether it is going on missions *without* these instructors when it's not an emergency, etc. I suppose I should do naval research. I MAKE MY LIFE HARD.))

Spock felt a flash of satisfaction upon hearing his calculations might be pioneering time travel. The feeling was illogical for many reasons, not the least of which was that they had not actually been his calculations.

He quelled the emotion to focus on the captain's apparent reluctance to discuss this gateway. Kirk's last statement, however, was leading, so perhaps Kirk was not against the conversation entirely. If it was relevant to their circumstances, Spock felt he should address it.

He remembered what the captain had said earlier. I'm sorry. Can you tell me what happened? Spock recalled the warmth in his voice, the concern in his eyes. Spock could neither emulate that tone, nor voice the sentiment. Furthermore he saw no need.

He still felt that way anyway.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Spock echoed the words because he could not echo the tone.

[James T. Kirk]

((This has made me realize just how different the timelines are. Obviously for convenient plot purposes they had to have everyone know each other when they were young and hot (obvs. none of the TOS cast was young or hot, hence Chekov in S2), but did Nero really cause Bones and Kirk and Spock to be at the Academy at the same time?

Also: AWWWW!))

Kirk's eyes flickered up to meet Spock's, aware of the echo. He knew he didn't hide his emotions--he seldom felt the need to, unless they were the sort that endangered his command--but it still seemed significant that Spock would chose his own words of concern when he might merely be asking about the mechanics of the incident. This Spock could not know why he was reluctant to speak. He smiled softly, remembering something Edith Keeler had said.

"The Guardian of Forever, Mr. Spock, is a sentient machine of unknown, ancient origin, designed to focus all dimensions and timelines and enabling travel between them. We're not certain of its original purpose, as it's programmed to run chronologically and cannot be more precisely controlled. When Doctor McCoy passed through the portal, he inadvertently altered Earth's, and our universe's, history. Much for the worse. Mr. Spock and I followed, but due to the speed of the Guardian's historical review we could only pinpoint his entry point within weeks. When we'd corrected McCoy's... mistake... we were returned to our own time. As if nothing had happened."

Nothing. It was a lie, the sort of thing the Guardian was not capable of understanding. Historical events had been restored. Kirk had not.

"I mention it because while certain key points seem unrelated, the gathering of timelines and dimensional possibilities in that one location strikes me as familiar. I'm not certain we're in the same danger of altering out own times. But it's closer to the Guardian than to our other, more linear experience with time travel."

[Spock]

((I know, yeah, I've been trying to explain to myself for some time how Nero could have affected why they were at school together. It's sorta fun.))

"This is fascinating. If our experience here is related to the Guardian I look forward to the opportunity to examine it."

Despite his interest Spock was well aware Kirk evinced sorrow at his recollections. He wished to inquire further, but even the strength of his omnipresent curiosity would not allow him to pry.

Spock had discovered, however, that sometimes an offer of information elicited an exchange. It seemed a logical approach.

"My experience with time travel until now has been, as you phrased it, linear." He was not sure this was an appropriate term considering the bends and folds of space-time, but this explanation might prove difficult. Particularly since he wished to share, but not too much.

"In my elder counterpart's universe," he began, "the Federation is possessed of a technology called red matter. I do not know if you are familiar with it. The elder Spock attempted to use it to prevent a supernova from affecting surrounding planets by means of creating a singularity. The results of his attempt forced him into the black hole. The time warp which has often been theorized at the center of a singularity occurred, and brought that Spock to my time, and universe.

"That Spock is approximately 127 years older than I. It seemed exceptional that out of any time the black hole may have released him, he appeared in a time that coincided with his own lifetime, thereby allowing us to . . . meet ourself." Spock gave Kirk a measuring gaze. "Considering our current situation, perhaps it is not as exceptional as I had originally supposed."

[James T. Kirk]

This Spock's future-Spock, in Kirk's imagination, had looked something like his own. He realized now that he'd not been very imaginative, there, though it was probably understandable. The thought of Spock over a hundred years in his own future still puttering around around supernovas was amusing. He knew Vulcans lived longer than humans, but that Spock still had to be pretty old.

Which meant he, Kirk, was likely dead.

It was a stupid thing to feel sad about, since he himself wasn't dead and it might not even be his Spock but he couldn't help connecting all sorts of things in his mind and coming up with a picture of the Spock he knew, alone in the future and flung into a world where his planet did not exist and younger versions of himself and his captain did. It was all somewhat overwhelming. Overwhelming enough not to pick up, exactly, on what Spock was doing. Not that Kirk generally needed encouragement to share.

He drew himself back to the present--or whatever it was--and forced back another host of questions in order to focus on what was, currently, most important.

"I'm not familiar," he said. "Either it's a different universe, or it hasn't been developed yet--or no one's seen fit to tell me about it. But it does seem outside the realm of coincidence, that you and... you... should cross paths." It happened to him all the time--under various and not entirely relevant conditions, of course. There was that other alternate universe, too. Damn transporters. "I've noted other such inconsistencies with regard to the behavior of time and dimensional travel," he said. "Parallels that have no reason to exist, that correspond without logic to my own world. Malfunctions that result in events like the one you describe, enabling the meeting of counterparts. It's hard to explain, Mr. Spock, since I don't understand it myself. I would hesitate to suggest that there is any purpose to any of it, any intelligence behind what seem to be coincidences. But is it not possible that something we don't yet understand draws us together? Meaning not you and I specifically, but that there is a thread, a pattern, in these events we haven't found. Something tying one being to his counterparts in other timelines, other dimensions."

He got the feeling they could talk this into circles, and while the thought of deep conversation with any Spock wasn't entirely unpleasant, it was hard not to just ask what the hell other-Spock had been thinking, flying around supernovas at his age.

[Spock]

((OMG OH MY GOD THIS ENTIRE COMMENT FILLED ME WITH SUCH UTTER DELIGHT I WANT BIGGER CAPSLOCKS. SpockPrime puttering! At his age! Now I want KirkPrime at this age and OldNimoySpock to meet. OMG IT WOULD BE SO WEIRD AND WRONG AND GOOD. Jesus.

ALSO. NuSpock apparently just sort of fell in love, too. I COULD NOT HELP IT EVERYTHING IS SO BRILLIANT.

ALSO OMG LONG COMMENT IS LONG SORRY.))

Spock found himself listening intently to Kirk's theory, his focus on the tricorder readings secondary. He was supposed to be collecting data so they would not need to continue to formulate baseless conjectures in this manner. But Spock had not found any evidence to supplement or detract from any theory, and he was beginning to think they were dealing with the mysteries of the fabric of the universe (universes) itself. Those mysteries might not have answers here, or any one place.

Maybe that was why instead of observing his surroundings as thoroughly as he had been initially, Spock was now thoroughly observing Kirk.

Kirk was an engaging conversationalist. He had a quick mind, and was able to assimilate Spock's points and incorporate them into his own comments. Sometimes he made intuitive leaps, or had new insights Spock had not yet considered. All of this surprised Spock, despite his reminder to himself that Kirk could not be written off.

Most surprising, though, was Kirk's attitude. The way he always listened with patience and readily apparent interest. The way he spoke with an openness to new ideas and objections. Spock had not noticed this in the Kirk of his time, and wondered whether it had been there, or whether it was a quality this Kirk had cultivated over time.

Spock respected him, he realized. It was a logical and in fact useful way in which to relate to another being.

He also wanted to talk to Kirk for hours regarding Kirk's experiences with time and space, his theories of the way in which these things worked. He wanted the Captain's insights and conclusions and he wanted to share some of his own just to see what the Captain would say.

That was not logical or useful at all.

But it was fascinating so Spock did it anyway.

"I do not think it beyond the realm of possibility. In fact, perhaps that makes more sense. Systems tend toward disorder, but that presupposes some measure of order to begin with. Perhaps there is a logical pattern in which like calls to like, as it were. There could be an unknown attraction between certain arrangements of atoms for other arrangements which mirror them."

Spock was still observing Kirk, looking at the way he listened. This Kirk's hair still had elements close to gold, his shoulders were still broad by human standards. His face was older, less soft, more firmly set in lines of human masculinity.

"You stated that this thread, tying one being to his counterparts, may not specifically draw you and I together. However, perhaps there is not only a force between universes which attracts elements in one version to its mirror elements. Perhaps there is also a force within each universe, a force which tends not towards disorder, as has always been hypothesized, but towards likeness. Every universe striving to be like its other, mirror universes.

"The first human the elder Spock encountered in my universe was the young version of yourself, Captain. The circumstances of their meeting seemed random, and it seemed a large coincidence Spock should without searching encounter a being with whom he had been so well acquainted in his own universe. It seems again a coincidence for you and I to meet here, when I know another you in my universe, and vice versa."

Spock was still looking at Kirk. "If we were privy to the secrets of the universe, Captain, we might find none of it is a coincidence at all."

[James T. Kirk]

((I think I just fell in love with everyone. Dude. This is so right. It needs to be fic. I don't even know! I had to go away and come back because I was just flustered! I have problems!))

It took Kirk a little time to realize that Spock was looking at him. Really looking at him, perhaps for the first time, instead of the tricorder or, more fancifully, some amalgamation of Kirkness drawn from Spock's own experience and speculation about this stranger he presented. He did not notice at first, perhaps because Spock's relative openness invited Kirk's own observation. Lessened the sense Kirk had of respecting Vulcan privacy, because the war he'd been fighting to consider this Spock a stranger was quickly being lost. There was something in that expression, in the way Spock was listening to him, that was familiar and welcome.

This Spock was younger. He'd already noticed that, obviously, even as he'd recognized him instantly. But the more he looked, the more differences he saw. This one was harder, somehow. There was a beauty in his strange features but it was unrelieved by experience and Kirk was reminded of the fact that the Rockies were younger than the Appalachians. Everything about this Spock was drawn tighter. Was that merely age? His Spock was not that much older. Was it Vulcan? Was it whatever else had drawn them all together at an entirely different time than that he himself remembered?

The lack of his steadfast, unspoken support was not surprising, even if it jarred a little. He'd earned that, as Spock had earned his trust, and even if this Spock and the younger Kirk were acquainted there was no telling what their relationship was from this Spock's reaction to him. After all, Kirk was responding to the younger version of a man he trusted with everything he was, a man he recognized. This Spock would not necessarily experience a similar transference; the change was likely more dramatic in that direction, merely because of age. It was hard for Kirk himself to imagine his Spock, aged.

But even as he thought all this, slowly recognizing the sensation of being almost studied--but in a benign fashion, as he'd sometimes felt studied by Spock before--Spock's words mixed with that fleeting thought about Edith and somehow attained a resonance Spock would doubtless find entirely illogical.

By his side, as if you've always been there and always will.

That was fate, and Kirk did not believe in fate. But it would be foolish of him to ignore the fact that something was at work that he didn't understand. He didn't have to believe in miracles to believe that.

"If were were privy to the secrets of the universe, Mr. Spock," he said, smiling a little at his own romantic foolishness, "we'd both be out of a job. Are you hungry?" he asked, changing directions suddenly though really he wasn't at all. It wasn't as if Spock was taking readings any more, and Kirk was beginning to think he wouldn't find anything anyway. If they were going to talk, it made sense to do it with some sense of comfort and privacy. "I suggest we take this conversation elsewhere. You can see what 19th century Parisian eating establishments tell you about our situation, and I can get some coffee."

[Spock]

((DUDE. Spock just said, we're fated! And Kirk just thought, d-mn, we so are. HAHA I die. And I don't even like that fated bs.))

Spock nodded. "I will soon require sustenance. These streets have of yet afforded no unique information. At the very least a shop will allow us to observe how others go about interacting in this world."

Spock did not say he'd rather just sit down and talk as well. Though he would.

"Do you have currency for this world? If I remember Earth history correctly most areas still operated on gold standard in this era."

((Sorry to ask about something so prosaic. I bet it isn't addressed by the 'verse? But what if they had to get *jobs* like in CatEoF? And what if they have to get a *flop*? If we don't want to worry about it we can handwave; I won't mind; I just felt Spock would ask.))

[James T. Kirk]

((Me neither, but honestly the canon itself supports such a notion.))

Spock hadn't said he'd rather sit and talk. But Kirk didn't think he'd be too far off the mark if he guessed as much. Not that he'd do so aloud, as he might be tempted to with the other Spock. Still, the notion that even this Spock might desire his company for reasons other than the purely logical filled him with warmth. It wouldn't have bothered him much if that warmth was really due his other, younger self, because how could he be jealous of that Kirk?

Except he wondered about knowing Spock at the Academy. What had that been like, he wondered?

"Good point," he said, reaching into his pocket and drawing out several bills. "They're paper!" he said, unable to hide his delight at the quaintness of it all. Obviously he knew how money worked, had studied history, but even his academic detachment was no match for paper money. "There are coins, too. I don't have much; I had a friend who loaned me some money. I don't think I can, or will, ask him again." He'd have to do something about that. "But it will do for now."

He looked down the street for a suitable establishment, locating a cafe that was likely to have simple fare and tea and all that stuff. Spock would hopefully be able to find something, though Kirk worried about the vegetarian thing. Still, there'd be something there.

"Does that look all right to you?"

((No, it's cool. It might, after all, give us plot--Lorien is boring. Are you going to worry about French or whatever or handwave that?))

[Spock]

This time Spock's lips did twitch.

He couldn't help it. He was intrigued by the paper money just as the captain was, because though he had read about such things, actually seeing them and putting them to practice enabled entirely new possibilities of comprehension. But he was more amused by Kirk's obvious delight.

"The cafe should prove sufficient for our current needs." Spock turned toward the establishment.

((Let's handwave it! By which I mean have either Spock or Kirk comment on the fact that everyone understands each other here, and maybe that can come into their speculations about where they are. Although is there ever anywhere in TOS where beings don't speak the same language? I don't suppose they posit the universal translator? Anywho I think everyone understanding each other is in fact a rule of the verse, isn't it? Are we all speaking "French" here? However you want to handwave, we can, and then comment on the handwaving, and then have coffee, and Spock can have crepes, and get whipped cream on his nose, I'm kidding, because he would rather a salad, but you gotta admit it'd be funny.))

[James T. Kirk]

Kirk saw it.

He handed Spock the money. "Here," he said. "You probably haven't seen this up close--even I hadn't, except in history books." It was so... nationalistic. So quaint.

They walked the short distance to the café, Kirk opening the door which activated a little bell hung above it. A waitress bustled over, gave Kirk a familiar once-over (really, he thought, it might just be the clothes) and set them up at a table next to a window and yet out of the way. Kirk smiled his thanks as she somewhat reluctantly moved off to give them time.

"Oh, right," he said. "You'll find that everyone understands you here. I've yet to figure out if that's because everyone's speaking English or if there's some other principle at work--some sort of universal universal translator."

((Um. Mostly we ignore it. Unless it's important for the character to be a foreigner and not understand stuff.))

[Spock]

((HAHAHA They posit the universal translator. And it's called...the universal translator. D-mn I love TOS so much.))

"The markings are French." Spock examined the money with interest. Then he scanned it. "Fibers, inks, and metals appear authentic." He gave the money back to the captain.

Once they were seated in the cafe and the waitress had gone, Spock raised his brow at the Captain's comment. "A universal universal translator? If so there must be a mechanism. If we could find it, the technology would disprove the apparent era."

Spock glanced around. "As you implied, none of the natives evince surprise at my appearance. The only thing out of the ordinary is that everything continues as if everything was in fact ordinary. Most intriguing."

Spock turned back to Kirk. "You said you have been here several months. Have you explored more of this Paris, besides the ground we have covered?"

[James T. Kirk]

((Seriously, they rule. You should also read Star Trek Memories when I'm done. Also no need to self-censor unless you want.))

Kirk scanned the menu, multi-tasking. "It would disprove the apparent era, but why bother to make the money authentic if they're going to leave such obvious holes in the illusion as language?" He realized he was now positing a "they," which didn't sit too well with him without any evidence, but they had nothing to go on. It was so much like planets he'd been on that were under the control of some sort of... cult, or unifying consciousness. At least it would give him something to fight. Unless there was no deception meant at all.

"I've explored a good portion of it," he said. "Most of it conforms to what I know of Earth history. Clothing, technology, food, geography... Except for the presence of an elven wood, and the appearance of other people who seem to be as out of place as we are, and the language issue, I'd assume I was in 19th century Paris."

[Spock]

((Now I'm bothered by whether the menus are in French. I told you I have problems.))

Spock scanned his menu, too. "You are suggesting the idea of a controlling force. If there is one, it would have priorities. Authenticity would appear to be one of them, but not above communication. And, considering the other beings you mention, not above interaction. Again, working under the controlling force theory, we could be inside a social experiment in which different cultures are meant to intersect.

"The other people to whom you refer. Who were they? What were your impressions of your interactions?"

It all fell under the auspices of their quest to determine their location, but Spock was still interested in talking to Kirk for the sake of it. Kirk's impressions were important not only as evidence but because they were Kirk's, and would help Spock learn more about this intriguing man.