James T. Kirk (alternate reality)

"We change. We have to. Or we spend the rest of our lives fighting the same battles."

- James T. Kirk to Krall, 2263

James Tiberius Kirk (born 2233) was a 23rd century Human Starfleet captain best known as the commanding officer of the Federation starship USS Enterprise. As a Starfleet cadet, he was instrumental in the defeat and death of Nero, a Romulan bent on the obliteration of the United Federation of Planets. As a result, he was commissioned directly to the rank of captain and appointed as commanding officer of the service's flagship, the USS Enterprise. About a year later in 2259, Kirk faced Khan, an enhanced human with superior strength and intellect. However, the crew of the Enterprise managed to stop him, following the sacrifice of Kirk. Spock managed to capture Khan with the help of Uhura and Dr. McCoy managed to revive Kirk. In 2260, the Enterprise set out on the first five-year mission.

In 2263, during its five-year mission, the Enterprise was destroyed by Swarm ships, led by Krall, stranding the crew on Altamid. The crew and Jaylah, who was also stranded by Krall, later managed to leave the planet after repairing the USS Franklin (NX-326), a ship commanded by Balthazar M. Edison that went missing in 2164. Kirk and his crew traveled to Starbase Yorktown and stopped revenge plans put into motion by Krall, who was revealed to be Edison. Afterwards, Kirk was given command of the USS Enterprise-A and continued his five-year mission.

Early life (2233-2255)
Born in 2233, James T. Kirk was the son of George and Winona Kirk. He was born in space, aboard a medical shuttlecraft from the USS Kelvin, just moments before his father's death. He was named after his maternal grandfather (James), and his paternal grandfather (Tiberius).

Kirk grew up in Iowa on Earth, living with his mother and Uncle Frank in or near the town of Riverside. Life with Winona's brother was difficult for the family, with George Kirk's oldest son expressing frustration with "being a Kirk" in Frank's household, and leaving to live with his grandfather. Young Jim stole his father's antique automobile, which Frank had claimed as his own. Kirk drove it off a cliff, barely escaping with his life. His rebelliousness continued well into his teens and early twenties, though his academic aptitude scores were off the charts. In 2255, Kirk attempted to pick up Starfleet Cadet Nyota Uhura at a bar, and subsequently became involved in a bar fight with four other cadets. The fight was broken up by Captain Christopher Pike. Pike, who was an admirer of Kirk's father, having written his Academy dissertation about the Kelvin, saw the troubled young man's potential as something that Starfleet needed, and encouraged him to enlist, rather than remain "the only genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest." Though initially refusing, Kirk reported to the Riverside Shipyard the next morning, where he met Leonard McCoy and left for Starfleet Academy..

Starfleet Academy (2255-2258)
As a top-performing Academy student, Kirk was invited to participate in Advanced Tactical Training at Starfleet Command College. In summer 2255, after six months of training, Cadet Kirk was elected captain of Team Delta for the final round of ATT testing, facing off against Team Alpha, led by Cadet Viktor Tikhonov. Team Delta achieved the highest score in the First Contact mission final. Kirk and his Delta teammate Braxim rescued Cadet Gaila when she was attacked by the mysterious serial killer known as the Doctor. The next day, Kirk's team was defeated by Team Alpha in the Security mission final, the Derelict Cairo scenario. Kirk visited a coffeehouse named Brewsky's and met a barista named Hannah, a botany grad student. Hannah gave Kirk good advice about his upcoming Science mission final, warning him that his very presence in a so-called "discovery setting" would change it. Later that evening, Kirk saw the Doctor near the Palace of Fine Arts, but the killer moved away too fast for him to follow. The next time Kirk visited Brewsky's, he and Hannah went for a cable-car ride. Walking down Columbus Avenue, they were approached by three members of a gang called the Mongol Saints. Kirk used an emergency transporter band to beam Hannah to the Academy shuttle hangar while he used his Starfleet close-combat training on the gang members.

At Tanika Station for the Science mission final, Kirk's team discovered complex, fast-growing plants along a lakeshore. Kirk realized that the plants might be intelligent and ordered his team not to take samples from them. With a sudden flash of insight, Kirk also realized that the Doctor was a scientist collecting specimens in San Francisco. Kirk's team received a positive assessment from their test's programmer - unknown to Kirk, his future colleague Commander Spock. Meanwhile, McCoy, Uhura and Dr. Patricia Park had determined that the Transamerica Pyramid was the Doctor's hideout. Kirk, McCoy and Uhura headed for the skyscraper, McCoy outfitting Kirk with weapons designed to combat the sophisticated nanites used by the Doctor. Kirk and McCoy entered the building's spire and battled the nanites. They encountered the hooded Doctor and four similar figures, all of whom proved to be coalesced swarms of nanites. Kirk and McCoy were nearly killed, but the nanites retreated and left Earth after determining that "Assimilation is not advisable at this time". A few days later, Hannah invited Kirk to "study" with her at her apartment.

Kirk spent two academic quarters onboard the USS Farragut. In 2256 he earned the Palm Leaf of Axanar Peace Mission for valor.

Among Kirk's friends at the Academy were Gary Mitchell and Lee Kelso, who were both a year ahead of him. Mitchell helped Kirk with his homework assignments and would later claim that Kirk would never have become captain of the Enterprise without him.

While in Starfleet Academy, Kirk had become friends with McCoy. By 2258, Kirk had already taken the Kobayashi Maru scenario twice and failed. He decided that he would win the third time, with McCoy curious as to how. Kirk managed to cheat the test and succeeded in winning. Spock, who programmed the "impossible" test, was angered at this.

While discussing his cheating ways with his superiors, Kirk stated he didn't believe in a no-win scenario, something his father also agreed upon. During this discussion, it was reported that Vulcan had sent a distress call, and many of the cadets were called into action, including McCoy, Spock, and Uhura, as well as Pike.

As he was under academic suspension, Kirk was not given an assignment, but McCoy injected him with a vaccine in order to give him the appearance of a disease and transfer him aboard the USS Enterprise under his medical care. Once aboard Kirk awoke during tactical officer Pavel Chekov's mission broadcast, which mentioned a "lightning storm in space" - the same thing the Kelvin had reported just before Nero's vessel had attacked it. Kirk knew something was very, very wrong. He escaped from Sickbay and found Uhura, who had mentioned receiving Romulan messages the night before, and presented his theory that they were jumping into a trap to Pike and Spock on the Bridge. Both were angrily dismissive of his theories at first, but Spock soon concluded that his logic was sound (for reasons not yet known to the others, he changed his mind when Uhura confirmed a crucial piece of Kirk's story), and as such Pike ordered shields raised, as they maintained course and found the rest of the fleet destroyed.

Nero spared the Enterprise but insisted that Pike board a shuttlecraft and come aboard his vessel. While in transit, Pike had Kirk, helmsman Hikaru Sulu, and Chief Engineer Olson make an orbital jump to land on and disable the drill apparatus mining into the planet. He also handed over command to Spock, and left Kirk as first officer. Kirk and Sulu were able to land on the drill, fight off two Romulans, disable the drill, and be transported back to the ship.

Marooned (2258)
After Spock had the Enterprise set course to rendezvous with the remainder of the fleet instead of pursuing Nero's vessel, Kirk protested openly on the Bridge. Spock decided to have Kirk removed from not only the bridge but the ship for his actions, marooning him on Delta Vega. When McCoy insisted he could handle him, Spock replied that this could only be done by placing him in permanent stasis, and even that might not work. Kirk woke up in his pod and climbed out. He climbed out of the hole in the ice and noticed nothing around but snow, ice and coldness. After wandering, he was spotted and chased by a monster. Another, bigger monster ate that one and Kirk was chased again. He desperately tried to escape, fleeing into an ice cave, but it was all for naught: the creature moved right through the cave, knocked him down, and wrapped its tongue around his leg.

However, just as the monster prepared to pull him in, out of nowhere, someone approached it with a torch, and as Kirk looked on in shock, the creature released him and ran away. When the stranger - an elderly Vulcan - turned, he stared for a brief period before recognizing the young man as James T. Kirk, claiming to be his lifelong friend, and, most shockingly, responding to Kirk's insistence that they didn't know each other by identifying himself - as an elder Spock, and mentioning that Kirk, not "himself", would be the Captain of the Enterprise by now in his timeline. Kirk initially didn't believe a word of it, but his attitude changed after this older Spock mentioned Nero. He then mind melded with Kirk to help him explain how Nero had altered history (told that, in addition to the two of them, Dr. McCoy, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov were already on the Enterprise, he suggested that the timeline was attempting to "fix" itself), leaving Kirk emotional. Spock also told Kirk that, where he came from, the father this Kirk never knew had been his inspired him to join Starfleet, and had proudly lived to see his son command the Enterprise.

Spock advised Kirk to bring up an emotional reaction from the young Spock, showing him to be in violation of Starfleet Regulation 619 (an "emotionally compromised" commander must resign command - Spock responded to Kirk's obvious unfamiliarity with the rule by recalling that his old friend never gave a damn about such things) in order to take control, and become the Captain of the Enterprise, as he was in the original timeline.

Kirk and Spock traveled to an outpost on the icy planet, and found a man called Montgomery Scott, "exiled" for a failed transporter experiment, who Spock recognized, knowing him from his own timeline. Using transwarp beaming (which the Scotty Spock knew had perfected in the future), Scott and Kirk beamed aboard the Enterprise, and were eventually captured by security (led by the one-time cadet who started the Iowa bar fight three years prior) on the orders of young Spock.

Taking control (2258)
With the advice of the elder Spock, Kirk provoked the young Spock to attack him by mentioning the death of his mother and the annihilation of his planet. Told that he had never loved her, Spock attacked Kirk, and though Kirk tried to defend himself, Spock got the upper hand and began strangling him. His father stopped him from killing Kirk.

Spock resigned command and after McCoy told Kirk they had no Captain and no First Officer to replace him, Kirk stepped up and took command based on Pike's orders. Kirk then decided either "we're going down or they are." Kirk was then confronted by the others on the bridge about how he had returned to the ship, but was able to convince them that the older Spock was his benefactor, and that their Spock must not know of the other's existence.

Shortly afterwords, Spock, having regained control of himself after hearing his father reveal the depth of his own love for his wife, then volunteered to go to the Narada to stop Nero, with Kirk letting him, but also stating that he would go too. Spock told Kirk that he would try to stop him with a rule, but Kirk would only just ignore it.

The Wrath of Nero (2258)
Kirk and Spock beamed aboard Nero's ship. However, instead of beaming in with the element of surprise, they were beamed in the middle of many of Nero's men. Kirk and Spock drew their phasers and a phaser fight ensued, with Nero's men being killed.

Kirk found Nero and a fight ensued. Nero easily overpowered him and nearly strangled him to death, but upon hearing that Spock had destroyed the drill furiously ran to the bridge, leaving Ayel to fight Kirk. Nero jumped from ledge to ledge and Kirk quickly jumped after him, but slid and hung onto the ledge. Ayel jumped after Kirk and picked him up by the neck, but Kirk grabbed his disruptor - offered last words, Kirk chose "I got your gun!" - and shot him in the chest, killing him.

Kirk found and rescued Captain Pike, who repaid his savior by taking his disruptor and gunning down two guards before they could shoot the defenseless human, and was beamed off the Narada, and back to the Enterprise where he gave Nero a chance to beam to the Enterprise and survive. After Nero declined, Kirk easily had all weapons fired and Nero was killed, along with the destruction of the Narada.

Captain of the USS Enterprise (2258)
Kirk got his uniform and showed up on the bridge of the Enterprise. He told McCoy to "buckle up" before sitting in the Captain's chair. Spock arrived and asked to be Kirk's first officer, and Kirk agreed.

After his promotion, Kirk also called Hendorff to the conference room to apologize for insulting him.

Months after the destruction of Vulcan, the Enterprise set out on a mission to the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. By this time Kirk had recruited Gary Mitchell and Lee Kelso to his crew. The ship's encounter with the force field at the edge of the galaxy mutated Mitchell into a superhuman being. Kirk attempted to maroon Mitchell on Delta Vega I, where Mitchell killed Kelso. Kirk was forced to kill Mitchell.

While en route with medical supplies to Makus III, Kirk was forced between getting the supplies to the plague ridden colony on time, or leaving Spock, McCoy and Scott in a damaged shuttle on Taurus II.Fortunately, Uhura hijacked a shuttle, rescuing the stranded crew members. Landing on Deneva while investigating a historical pattern of civilizations destroyed by insanity inducing parasites, Kirk was pleasantly surprised to be rescued from a attack by his own brother George Samuel Kirk, Jr. Despite some residual anger at him leaving home, Kirk helped his brother rescue wife and son while Scott rid Deneva of the blastoneurons. Kirk bid goodbye to his brother once again as the Enterprise traveled to deliver specimens of the parasites to Starbase 10.

Afterwards, the crew received a distress call from a Vulcan science ship. Despite their assistance, one of the attackers escaped with a hostage. He then contacted the Enterprise informing them he was a survivor of the Narada, and had stolen a red matter sample recovered by the Vulcan scientists, and was intending to sell it to the Romulan Star Empire. Kirk made the decision to breach the Romulan Neutral Zone and pursue. After being arrested by the Romulans, Kirk tried to explain to the Romulan Senate what happened, but they did not believe him. However, Spock, disguised as a Narada miner, learned the kidnapping was a Vulcan plot to infiltrate the Empire and detonate red matter on Romulus. After the truth was revealed and the plot foiled, Kirk was allowed to return to his ship while the Romulans kept the red matter.

Returning to Earth after the incident, Kirk chose to detour at Beta III to investigate the story of the Archon that he had heard from a professor. Sulu and O'Neill were sent to a human settlement, but after losing contact with them in an attack, Kirk beamed down. After being attacked by the Lawgivers and discovering their god Landru was a computer from the Archon, McCoy took him to a woman named Ariel who revealed the truth of Landru's Federation origins. Scott disabled the computer, freeing the planet's inhabitants from its control, afterwards Kirk contacted Pike, who promised to send aid to the colonists.

2259
Investigating Klingon activity on Iota Geminorum IV, Kirk and Spock fought off the tribbles' natural predators as Scott and Chekov worked to disable a bomb, all while almost being suffocated by the fast replicating furry animals. When returning to the Enterprise, Kirk was informed by Pike that San Francisco was overrun by tribbles: Scott explained he had sent the one from Delta Vega back to his nephew Chris. After Spock deduced cold temperatures prevent the tribbles from reproducing, the infestation in ship's engineering and on Earth was contained.

Kirk was ordered to make contact with the indigenous people of Gamma Trianguli VI. He managed to reason with the locals and prevented his away team from dying of poison, lightning strikes, stepping on mines or being eaten by the natives.

Other events
Kirk commanded the Enterprise in battle against Cardassian, Romulan and Klingon forces while traveling through their respective areas of space.
 * The exact timing of the game's events is not given.

Gorn Encounter
On stardate 2259.32, the Enterprise received a distress call from a space station harvesting the power of a binary star. There was too much interference to beam the crew aboard, so Kirk and Spock took a shuttle to rescue the crew. They encountered T'Mar, a childhood friend of Spock, who explained that they were gathering energy to power the Helios device, which would speed up the terraforming of New Vulcan, but unwittingly opened a rip in space. Beaming to New Vulcan, Kirk and Spock met with T'Mar's father Surok, who explained that the station's power from the base was lost after they were attacked by creatures - who called themselves the Gorn - from the Rip. Kirk and Spock entered the locked-down sections of the base to recover the infected survivors, but were unable to stop the Gorn from stealing the Helios device and kidnapping Surok.

On stardate 2259.33 Kirk opted to take the infected personnel to a nearby starbase instead of pursuing the Gorn Commander's ship through the Rip. At the starbase, Kirk, Spock, and T'mar met with Commodore Daniels, who implied he gave T'Mar the specifications for the device as he knew it would create a wormhole. Suddenly, the Gorn attacked the starbase and kidnapped T'Mar. Just as he was about to be beamed back aboard the Enterprise, Spock tackled the Gorn Henchman, bringing him aboard the ship. Kirk and Spock pursued him to the shuttlebay before he could commandeer a shuttle. Spock mind-melded with the Henchman, learning Surok was killed after confessing he had no insight into the device, but that his daughter would. Kirk had the Henchman imprisoned.

Kirk resolved to enter the Rip. After the Enterprise entered the Gorn's galaxy, Kirk and Spock took a shuttle with Sulu and McCoy to a nearby planet. When their shuttle was shot down, Kirk and Spock used wingsuits to glide to a Gorn outpost and blow it up before infiltrating a base to rescue T'Mar. They found Daniels, who was killed in an ensuing firefight. The Gorn brought Kirk and Spock to the Gorn Commander, who had them taken to an arena to fight his soldiers to the death. Angered by their besting of his champion, the Gorn Commander had Spock infected to fight Kirk to the death. Suddenly, Sulu's shuttle arrived and McCoy shot Spock with a finished antidote, while the Commander fled to his ship with T'Mar and the device.

The shuttle returned to the Enterprise, which had been taken over by the Gorn. Kirk and Spock space-dived to engineering and beamed McCoy and Sulu back on board. They helped Scotty and Keenser reactivate the warp cores, and restored power to sickbay so McCoy could replicate more of the antidote for airborne dispersal. Kirk and Spock headed to the bridge where the Henchman was holding Uhura hostage, demanding Kirk give them control of the ship. Kirk responded by directing their shuttle to crash into the viewscreen, decompressing the Gorn into space.

With only an hour before the Rip would close, Kirk and Spock space-dived to the Gorn Commander's ship, where they disabled the targeting platform to give the Enterprise a fighting chance, and entered the core where T'Mar and the device were being held. Kirk and Spock destroyed the device, defeated the Commander, and were beamed back to the Enterprise with T'Mar. The Enterprise warped back to the Milky Way Galaxy before the Rip closed. In his captain's log, Kirk stated that T'Mar had recovered enough to continue working on New Vulcan, and the Enterprise had been ordered to survey the planet Nibiru.

Encounter with April
En route to Nibiru, Admiral Marcus recalled the Enterprise to do a survey of Phaedus IV. When they arrived at Phaedus, the Enterprise detected a energy field originating. Kirk, knowing that a civilization at the level of the Roman Empire never shot a energy field into space, decided to investigate this to find out who did this and why. Kirk took Spock, Sulu, and Hendorff to investigate it. As their shuttle descended, it came under fire and was forced to crash land. Kirk and the others survived the crash. Kirk then went with spock to look around. They were then surrounded by Phaedans armed and equipped with starfleet equipment and weapons. Kirk then met a man who said he was Robert April, former captain of the USS Enterprise.

At first, Kirk did not believe that he was not Captain April and that he and his fellow Phaedans shot him down. When they came underfire, Kirk and Spock followed him into a cave. Kirk was then briefly taken by April who used it to seal the cave. Kirk did not trust April, despite him giving his phaser back. April then told them that the rulers of the planet attacked them. Kirk then demanded to know why Starfleet thinks he's dead. April just assured him that he was on his side in a funny way as Kirk saw it. When they got to April's home, Kirk demanded to know the truth about April. After April told Kirk how he save the few white Phaedans from the Shadow Phaedans, April asked Kirk about his relationship with his first officer Spock. Kirk told him that it was evolving, to which Spock concur. Kirk was then showed the Shadow's army by April and was told that Sulu and Hendorff were their prisoners. Kirk, angry about April lying to him and losing his mind, promised that after his men were resuced, he would take him to San Francisco to a holding cell.

When Spock ran off to resuce Sulu and Hendorff, Kirk grabbed a phaser rifle and decided to go after him, ignoring April's advice. Kirk then met up with Uhura and April's supplier, Mudd. Kirk then went with Uhura to rescue Spock, Sulu, and Hendorff. Kirk then took April and Mudd up to the Enterprise. Kirk then told April that he would honor his request for food and supplies to help the white Phaedans, knowing that the Shadows were being supported by the Klingons. Kirk was told that April kept this from this because he needed their help. Following their discussion, Kirk ordered April and Mudd to Sickbay to chek on their health. Kirk then talked to spock about his behavior, which has been seen as suicidal since Vulcan's destruction. Kirk says that fine, but should he take unwarranted action again, Kirk would assign him to the boring-est assignment at Starfleet HQ. Kirk decide to forgo punishment, knowing that Uhura would carry it out for him. Kirk then went to sickbay, but April and Mudd was not there. Kirk, Spock and the crew were locked off from bridge, when April initiated Protocol 31, putting the Enterprise under his command. Kirk then tried to convince April to stop or he would risk starting a war with the Klingons.

When April refused, Kirk, Spock, and Scotty then attempted to take control of the Enterprise back. Kirk and Spock then used the Jeffries tubes to reach the bridge. En route to the bridge, Kirk and Spock were separated when April blocked the jeffries tubes. Kirk then met up with the Uhura, McCoy and the rest of the crew in a room. Kirk then saw a Klingon warship. Just as that happened, Scotty was to turn off and reset the Enterprise. Kirk and Spock were then able to subdue April and Mudd. Kirk was then able to take command back and escape before Commander Kor sent boarding parties. Kirk then questioned April about him trading the Enterprise and it's crew to the Klingons for Governorship of Phaedus. Following that, Kirk saw that April was right about his actions.

Encounter with Khan
A year later, Kirk violated the Prime Directive on Nibiru, saving Spock's life while exposing the Enterprise to the primitive Nibirans, who began worshipping the ship as a god. Returning to Earth, Pike informed Kirk the Admiralty headed by Alexander Marcus would be sending him back to the Academy, and that perhaps he had been promoted too soon. That night, Kirk drowned his sorrows in a bar, when Pike appeared to inform he had convinced Marcus to let him appoint Kirk his first officer, because he still had faith in the young man.

The two then attended a summit in the Daystrom Building at Starfleet Headquarters regarding the bombing of the Kelvin Memorial Archive in London. Marcus ordered a manhunt for the perpetrator, a rogue Commander named John Harrison. Kirk analyzed surveillance of Harrison at the debris site, and questioned why Harrison bombed a public library for the information he needed. He then realized Harrison would be aware protocol dictated such an attack would precipitate meetings like these: Harrison showed up in an attack vehicle and opened fire.

Kirk attached a fire hose to a rifle and threw it into the fighter's engine, causing it to crash. Before it did, Harrison glared at Kirk and beamed himself away. Kirk returned to the conference room to find Spock with Pike, who had died of a chest wound, and mourned. The next morning, Scott informed Kirk that Harrison had used the confiscated transwarp beaming formula to escape to Qo'noS, heart of the Klingon Empire. Kirk informed Marcus, who gave him permission to hunt down and execute Harrison.

To do so, Marcus gave the Enterprise 72 experimental photon torpedoes to bombard Harrison's location from orbit, and assigned weapons expert Carol Wallace to the Enterprise. At a hangar, McCoy expressed his belief that Harrison was out of Kirk's league, while Spock protested executing Harrison without trial was immoral. Aboard the ship, Scott protested about not being allowed to examine the torpedoes, and not having time to examine the faulty new warp core. Kirk accepted Scott and Keenser's resignation, and appointed Chekov to replace them. Dejected, Kirk decided to listen to his crew's advice and announced they would find Harrison and bring him back for a tribunal.

Before reaching Qo'noS, the Enterprise's warp core broke down, so Kirk took an away team with Spock, Uhura and Hendorff to find Harrison. Acting captain Sulu broadcasted a message to Harrison. Kirk's ship was attacked by a Klingon patrol, and despite maneuvering it through a narrowing gate, they found themselves surrounded. Kirk allowed Uhura to exit the ship and negotiate with the Klingons, but they refused to listen and tried to kill her. Kirk and Spock came out firing phasers, but Harrison appeared and singlehandedly killed all the Klingons. Kirk accepted Harrison's surrender, but spitefully punched him, only to find his continuous blows had no effect on him.

In the ship's brig, Kirk and Spock interrogated Harrison while McCoy took a blood sample, which he studied by injecting into a dead tribble. Harrison only responded by giving them a set of coordinates, and advised Kirk to open one of the torpedoes. Spock informed Kirk that Carol could examine the torpedoes, and also informed the captain that he had learned she was actually Admiral Marcus's daughter, because he felt the information had just become relevant. Kirk also called Scott and asked him to investigate the coordinates.

McCoy and Marcus took a shuttle to a meteor to examine a torpedo, but McCoy accidentally activated the countdown and trapped his hand in the device. Kirk ordered to beam them up, but was warned beaming up McCoy would also beam up an exploding torpedo. Fortunately, Kirk avoided losing his friend when Marcus deactivated the device in time. The torpedo finally opened up, and the two officers found it contained a man in cryogenic stasis.

Kirk interrogated Harrison again, who explained he had placed people in torpedoes to smuggle them before he was caught. He revealed he was actually the infamous Khan Noonien Singh, recruited by Admiral Marcus under a new identity to design weaponry and ships for war against the Klingons, and that the frozen people were his fellow Augments whom the admiral had held hostage. Marcus suddenly showed up in the Dreadnought-class ship the USS Vengeance, demanding Kirk hand over Harrison. Kirk revealed he knew the truth, and defied the admiral by warping the Enterprise to Earth, where Khan would stand trial and expose the conspiracy. However, the Vengeance was capable of catching up with the Enterprise in subspace and fired on the ship, halting it as it arrived outside Earth.

Carol tried to bargain with her father, who simply beamed her over to his ship, and then Kirk tried to hand himself over to protect his crew, but Marcus explained he had no intention of letting anyone in on the plot survive. Before the Vengeance could finish off the Enterprise, its weaponry suddenly deactivated. Scott called Kirk, explaining he had stowed away aboard the Vengeance at the coordinates given by Khan, buying them some time. Kirk, realizing Khan designed the ship, allied himself with him, and the two donned thruster suits to fly over and commandeer the vessel. Khan's formidable strength was an asset in dispatching any guards they encountered, but Kirk was suspicious of Khan and ordered Scott to shoot to stun him later.

When they reached the bridge, Scott stunned Khan while Kirk confronted Marcus over his betrayal of Starfleet's ideals. However, stunning Khan did not effect him, and the Augment tackled Scott and Kirk before proceeding to kill Marcus and take the command chair. Khan ordered Spock to hand over the torpedoes, and in return he beamed Kirk, Scott and Carol into the Enterprise brig. Khan turned on Spock though, bombarding the Enterprise once more. Spock, who had the cryo pods removed from the torpedoes, ordered them to be detonated, crippling the Vengeance: the shockwave caused both ships to be pulled by Earth's gravity. Kirk and Scott ran to the warp core, trying to avoid falling to their deaths due to the failing artificial gravity.

Death and Resurrection
Once they reached the warp core, Scott warned entering it would flood the chamber with radiation, but as there was no time to put on a containment suit, Kirk knocked out Scott and secured him with a seatbelt before entering the warp core. Kirk knocked the central component back in place, restoring power to the engines and preventing the Enterprise from crashing. Meanwhile, Khan crashed the Vengeance into San Francisco. Scott woke up and called Spock to come down, and saw Kirk dying from radiation poisoning. Kirk bid goodbye to his friend, then died. Jim heard the voices of his father, mother and Pike as he lay in the border between the world of the living and the dead. He was taken to sickbay after decontamination, where McCoy and others silently mourned the loss of their captain. McCoy noticed the tribble he had injected with Khan's blood had come back to life, and realizing how to save Kirk's life, ordered his body be placed in a cryotube to preserve his brain. Spock and Uhura beamed down and apprehended Khan, using him to perform a blood transfusion before putting him on ice once more. Kirk awoke two weeks later in a hospital in San Francisco, with McCoy and Spock present. Kirk and Spock then attended Khan's trial, acting as adjunct counsel. Kirk then gave an opening statement at Khan's trial.

The five-year mission
A year later, Kirk spoke with April about his, Section 31's, Marcus's, and Khan's plan to start a war with the Klingon Empire. April warned Kirk that the Federation could not peacefully coexist with the Klingons and that Khan was just the start of their plans.

A week after the encounter with April, Kirk presided over the rechristening of a restored Enterprise, which then departed for the first five-year mission of exploration ever attempted by Starfleet. Soon, Kirk was force to change course to New Vulcan to help Spock with his pon farr. Kirk was then sent to investigate a distress call from a Federation mining team on Parthenon 559. Kirk and his landing party then found that the miners had stumbled across Gorn and attacked them, leading to a brutal retaliation from the Gorn.

Kirk then took the Enterprise to Deep Space K-11 in 2261, to give his crew a chance to contact their families before starting the five year mission. Before leaving, Kirk brought aboard Sulu's sister, Yuki to the Enterprise. However, as the mission started, the Enterprise intercepted a distress call from the Klingon colony on Khitomer. Kirk then decided to investigate, seeing it as the chance to extend a olive branch of peace to the Klingons. Kirk then led the landing party to search for survivors. However, Kirk and the landing party were then captured by the Klingons. Kirk was then brutally interrogated by Commander Kor, who refused believe his mission was just to catch Khan. Kirk was then taken to Qo'nos.

Later that year, following an encounter with an anomaly referred to as a "quantum storm," the Enterprise was transported to an alternate reality and met a female version of himself named Jane Tiberia Kirk. Aside from her gender and the fact that he lost her mother rather than her father as an infant, the female Kirk's life closely paralleled his own.

Encounter with Q
On stardate 2261.34, while using the turbolift to reach the bridge, Kirk encountered a Q|man who he had never seen before. After the man mentioned that Kirk's Enterprise design is much better than "the beige look", Kirk became confused as to his meaning and continued to the bridge. Q then summoned a civilian ship, the Smallwood, and five Klingon warships to test Kirk and his crew. However, Lieutenant Uhura was able to discover that it was an illusion. Q then applauded Uhura's actions. Q then demonstrated his powers by allowing things to phase through him and then talk to Kirk on the Enterprise's hull about his belief in "no-win scenarios". Q then showed Kirk the day he died in the warp core. Kirk, his crew and the ship were then pushed 108 years into future, to ''Terok Nor.

Kirk, his crew, and the Enterprise were then taken prisoner by Dominion's Jem'Hadar troops.

In the vastness of space
Three years later Kirk was helping to negotiate peace between the Teenaxi Dyanasti and the Fabonan Delegation, working as a neutral representative by presenting the Teenaxi with a dismantled weapon as a token of peace. Suspicious of the Fabona, the Teenaxi attacked Kirk - though due to their diminutive stature, Kirk was mostly unharmed and quickly beamed back to the Enterprise by Scotty.

In his Captain's log following the mission, Kirk expressed his frustrations with life aboard the Enterprise this far into its mission, stating that he felt as though life had become "episodic". Near his birthday, Kirk confided in McCoy over a drink, telling the doctor that he questioned his motives for joining Starfleet on a dare rather than a strong belief in it like his father. Kirk's morose was worsened by the fact that his birthday signified his turning one year older than his father lived to be.

Due to these frustrations, Kirk applied for a promotion as Vice Admiral at Starbase Yorktown when the Enterprise docked there for resupply.

Loss of the Enterprise
Following the arrival at Yorktown of Kalara, claiming her ship had crashed on a planet in the uncharted Necro Cloud, Kirk volunteered the Enterprise for the rescue mission. When the ship is through the unstable nebula a massive unidentified ship is approaching them Kirk quickly realizes that something is amiss and raises the shields before the ship breaks up into smaller drones and starts to dismantle the Enterprise causing multiple hull breaches and severing the nacelles Kirk realizes that the enemy is after the weapon he tried the present to the alien species so he steals it before the attacker Krall is able to steal it and Kirk gives it to a crew member. Kirk realizes that the ship is going down so orders the crew to abandon ship so Kirk attempts the sever the saucer section of the ship so it can safely land on the surface. Kirk runs into Krall and the two fight, but Uhura severs the saucer section, sending him to the surface.

Altamid
When on the surface Kirk, Chekov and Kalara all land together. A Furious Kirk confront Kalara realizing that she knew the ship would be attacked. She reveals that Krall has her crew and threatened to kill the, unless she helped. Realising that they need to locate the crew the three go the crash site to scan for the crew. Kirk goes to where he claims to have his the weapon but is attacked by Kalara reaveled to be working with Krall and she contacts him to inform him she has the weapon. Kirk, however decieved her having Chekov trace her communication to Krall. They were both attacked by his troops but escaped by activating the Enterprise's thrusters, causing an explosion which in turn killed Kalara and thrust Kirk and Chekov through the air as they made their getaway.

The next morning Kirk and Chekov walk into one of Jaylah's traps but are freed when Scotty tells her that they are friends. Jaylah reveals that she has made a 22nd century Federation starship - the USS Franklin (NX-326) - her home and using the scanners he is able to locate Spock and McCoy and beam them to the ship before Krall's drones are able to kill them. Kirk helps to treat an injured Spock while he reveals that the weapon came from this planet. Using the trace from Kalara's communication and pinpointing it with Uhura's Vulcan necklace, the crew are able to learn the crews exact location and formulate a plan to rescue them and stop Krall before he attacks Yorktown.

Using a motorcycle from the Franklin and Jaylah's holographic technology Kirk is able to distract Krall so that Spock and Jaylah are able to escape with the crew. Once all the crew are back on the Franklin, Kirk at the last second is able to rescue Jaylah and get her back to the ship. Krall leaves for Yorktown while Kirk and the crew follow on the Franklin.

Saving Yorktown
When they arrive at Yorktown Krall has nearly penetrated the bases defences. Spock and Scotty realise that they have the disrupt the communications between the drones in order to stop the attack so he orders Bones and Spock to transport onto one of the drones in order to hack into the frequenc using the music player from the Franklin they send out a classical song over the frequency causing all but three of the drones to be destroyed. Kirk and the crew follow Krall into the base and are able to block his attack causing him to crash into the ship presumably killing him. Kirk searches the ship with Uhura to be sure but when searching Uhura discovers a recording of the original Franklin crew where she spots the captain of the ship, Balthazar Edison is Krall. By looking at his file they discover that he was a soldier who fought during the Xindi incident and the Earth-Romulan War after which he was given command of the Franklin. He slowly started the despise the Federation's views and slowly went insane in the century after the ship went missing.

Scotty and Jaylah realises that Edison is going to release the weapon in the base's ventilation system, killing the millions of inhabitants. Kirk reveals to the now disfigured Edison that he knows who he is and that he is underestimating humanity and that the Federation is a cause of good. While the hub loses gravity Kirk fights Edison and is able to take the bioweapon from him and attempts to eject it into space by opening the airlock. While he attempts the open it, Edison regains his strength and continues to fight Kirk but is ultimately ejected into space with the weapon killing him.

Continuing the five-year mission
Kirk declined the promotion and decided to remain the commanding officer of the Enterprise. Some time later while the crew was on shore leave at Yorktown, the crew surprised Kirk with a birthday celebration at which he and his crew looked out onto the construction of the brand new USS Enterprise (alternate reality NCC-1701-A). After its completion, Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise-A resumed their five-year mission.