"Tapestry" I: How could things have been different?

[Captain Picard's Hair]

On a different tread I mentioned a fan fic webisode called Star Trek of Gods and Men. That was a great what if. The premise is that Charlie X wants revenge on Kirk, but Kirk has already been lost in the Nexus. So Charlie goes to the Guardian of Forever to travel back in time to extract his revenge. Chekov, Uhura, and Jon Harriman beam down to stop him, but instead Charlie goes threw, and we suddenly see the universe as it is without James Kirk. Starfleet has become somthing like the TE, and is ruled with an iron fist by one God-Emperor Gary Mitchell (who since Kirk wasn't there to stop him, killed Chris Pike and rose to power). Chekov is a freedom fighter, Harriman is Captain of the Enterpirse-nil (un refitted) and Uhura is married to a Vulcan. Those three slowly remember how things are supposed to be and I'll stop there so as not to ruin it if anyone wants to see it. It really showed the effect one man can have on the world (or the universe in Kirk's case)

I was trying to think of a Kirk example, but didn't know of whatever choices he could have made (what turning points there were) that would have resulted in sweeping changes. While your example is a bit out of the spirit of one's own choices, it still illustrates the effect that a change can have.