Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek….but I wish I did.
So I don't particularly like Uhura, but don't ask me why, I do not know. Something about her just grates on my nerves. Originally, this was supposed to be a Spock/OC fic, but now I'm thinking about Scott/OC fic instead. Give me feedback and let me know what you think I should do.
Also, I honestly don't know if Gaila was on the Enterprise or if she even survived the whole battle with Nero, but in my fic she did because frankly, I need someone for Kirk in my story J
Paget Hankel was a genius, if you believed in such terms. Paget did not. You were either smart enough and good enough for Starfleet or you weren't; and Paget fell into the former category. But, if you used the dictionary meaning of the word "genius", then that is exactly what Paget was. She had an eidetic memory, an IQ of 186, and could read an average of around 5,000 words per minute. But all of this meant nothing to Paget except for a means of escape. Her father, Michael Hankel, had been aboard the U.S.S Kelvin as an engineer, and while he had managed to escape, his legs had been mangled in the process. So now the old engineer was a loud, drunken slob that Paget wanted to get away from, and Starfleet was her answer.
She flew through all of her classes with ease, but she also took more than was essentially needed for one occupation. Paget didn't know what she wanted to do; therefore her solution to the problem was to take classes dealing in engineering and medicine…plus Advanced Quantum Physics, just for the hell of it. This class was, at the time, being taught by Commander Spock, a man that Paget Hankel found quite intriguing at first since he was only half-Vulcan. However, by the fourth day it was quite obvious to the entire class that Commander Spock acted much more Vulcan than he did human, and he did not appreciate the jokes and laughter coming from Paget and Gaila. He even went as far as to try and separate the two girls, and it worked until Paget found an interesting little glitch in the holo-screens on the desks. There was a way to take a typed message and slide it to someone who was on the other side of the room, and all it took was a good flick of the wrist.
Paget was almost positive that this was the reasoning behind as to why she hadn't been assigned to any of the Starships, even though Gaila had. It never crossed Paget's mind that she was "too young to work in an engineering room"; and even after having this explained to her from a teacher, Paget didn't believe it. She was a genius, but that didn't make her any less bullheaded.
After the U.S.S Enterprise returned home and Paget heard most of the stories, she was even more pissed that she hadn't been assigned to a ship…especially when she heard about the seventeen year old kid that had been on the deck itself. "Too young my ass," Paget grumbled as Gaila talked told another story about what happened to the Enterprise.
"You're too young to be an engineer," Gaila said, reminding her friend of the exact words that came from the instructor while she brushed Paget's thick, blonde hair.
"The kid was seventeen! He's two years younger than I am, yet not only was he on the ship, but he was the deck!" Paget said in frustration, ignoring Gaila's words of sense.
Gaila laughed and started to braid her hair, "Page my dear, are you jealous?" Gaila was the only one who ever called Paget, Page, being the one who started it all. She said Paget was an odd name.
"Damn right I'm jealous! I so badly wanted to be inside the engineering room of any of the ships. Even if had been the Farrugut or the Willcot."
Paget only saw a brief flash of green as Gaila smack her along the head, "don't be like that. You know what happened to the people on those ships." She went back to braiding, and Paget rubbed her head, frowning. She had only meant that she had wanted to be any ship, even though none of the others were as superior to the Enterprise.
There was a buzzing at Paget's door and she stood, pulling her hair away from Gaila long enough to go see who it was. Upon sliding the door open, Paget saw an officer standing with a holo-device. "Paget Hankel?"
"Yes sir."
"Captain James T. Kirk requests your presence in the holding bay immediately."
"Yes sir," Paget said, giving him a salute. She closed the door and turned around, stumbling back and letting out a startled gasp as Gaila was standing inches from her. "What are you doing?"
"What do you think he wants?"
"I don't know, but I need to get changed." She dressed in her red uniform, and while she pulled on her boots, Gaila finished braiding her hair. "How do I look?"
"You look fine. If you get the chance, tell Kirk that I say hello."
"Gaila, I am not going to tell the Captain of the Enterprise that his sex kitten says hi," Paget said, straigtening her outfit.
Gaila giggled, "I don't want you to say hi, I want you to say hello."
"Goodbye Gaila." Paget walked through the Academy's halls, taking deep breaths as her heart rate picked up. As far as she knew, she hadn't done anything wrong in quite a while, and even if she had then it would be the Academy Board calling her down, not a Captain of a ship. Upon entering the holding bay, Paget spotted Captain Kirk and another man that she didn't recognize. "You asked to see me sir?"
"Paget Hankel?" Kirk asked.
"Yes sir."
"How would you like to be a member of the U.S.S Enterprise?" Paget blinked a couple times and she opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. Kirk laughed, "I'll be taking that as a yes. This is Montgomery Scott, head engineer of the Enterprise, and he's picking out new engineers."
"You know it amazes me that you weren't onboard the Enterprise in the beginning," Scott started. Paget was thrown off slightly by his accent, but he didn't seem to notice and kept talking. "I've gone over your file multitudes of times and it's absolutely genius! Can you really read five thousand words in a single minute?"
"It's an average, sir," Paget answered, cringing ever so slightly at the word 'genius'.
"Still! It's amazing!"
Kirk chuckled, "welcome aboard the U.S.S Enterprise Lieutenant Hankel."
Paget saluted him, "thank you sir." He began to walk away when she said, "uh, Captain?"
"Yes?"
Blushing slightly, Paget said, "Gaila says…hello."
Kirk smiled, "ah yes, Gaila. I should go visit her."
