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[dendarii]

"This is Miles. Leave a message and I'll respond to you at my earliest convenience."

The line has gone silent; any messages sent to this name only return an error.

Comments

[overemotionally]

[He slowly nods.]

I wasn't eaten because someone drove it off.

[He projects an image of an older Vulcan with a torch.]

[dendarii]

[ Miles cocks his head mentally, curious. ]

... Who is that? What was he doing there?

[overemotionally]

That's Spock, from the future and an alternate timeline.

[He launches into the explanation of how Prime got there, his role in the Romulans' destruction of Vulcan...]

No one in the crew has any idea how the Romulans did what they did except me. Spock told me all of this through...it was different than what we're doing. [A small chin lift to their entwined hands.] Deeper. Some emotional transfer with it because of that. [Because of Vulcan.]

[dendarii]

[ Miles' eyes just get wider and wider as Jim's story goes on. Time travel? Wormholes? Alternate versions of oneself? It's like a particularly unrealistic holovid. There's a lot to unpack here, but he starts with... ]

... You felt his pain at the planet's loss.

[overemotionally]

[Even as he's explaining it, it sounds unreal. He doesn't blame Miles' reaction.

Another hesitation. He's not meeting Miles' eyes.]

Part of it, yeah.

[dendarii]

... What aren't you telling me, Jim?

[overemotionally]

[...Fuck it. No hiding from Miles. Not after what he just told Jim.]

...I don't think it was just his pain. I think Vulcans are all vaguely telepathically linked. They all felt that. And he was the one that gave me the idea for how to get command of the ship.

[dendarii]

[ Miles turns sharply, even more alarmed now. ]

Then Spock felt it too. And - you felt it by proxy.

[overemotionally]

Yes I felt it. The one from the alternate universe, Prime, he was the one that gave me the idea of emotionally compromising Spock to gain control of the Enterprise.

[dendarii]

... And that's how you're going to fix things? Save your planet?

[overemotionally]

At least if I was in command we'd be heading towards Earth to cut the Romulans off, not away, trying to regroup with other ships from the 'Fleet. There wasn't any time for that.

[dendarii]

...

And the rest of it? All that about alternate worlds? And being from the future?

[overemotionally]

...Try and figure something out on the fly.

[dendarii]

Jim ...

[overemotionally]

The only thing I was worried about at that point was making sure they didn't get to Earth. Once that was done, we'd figure everything else out. Priorities.

[dendarii]

But it's insane, what you've seen. Please tell me you've at least discussed this with Spock here.

[overemotionally]

...No. Not what I just told you, anyway. Prime didn't want me to tell Spock about him but...I'm not sure if that still counts, us being here and all.

[dendarii]

Then I'll tell him.

[overemotionally]

No, you won't.

[dendarii]

Give me one good reason why not.

[overemotionally]

How the hell would you feel being told secondhand that your alternate universe self told someone to mess you up so badly you hauled off and beat them half to death?

[dendarii]

... Like my other self was a colossal dick?

[overemotionally]

[He rolls his eyes at Miles' response. Not to mention how wrong he is on that front.]

You're not telling him. I will.

[dendarii]

[ Oops. He had gotten a very good sense of the other man's pain just now. Still. He's certain that any copy of him would have to be a dick by necessity. ]

As long as you do that, then.

[overemotionally]

[Well at least he didn't specify when.

He just gives Miles A Look. But then it softens.]

...He knew me by face. Called me "old friend". [He shakes his head at that.] Wonder what the hell kind of alternate universe it was.