Captain, we have a stowaway

by Alan wannabe

Alan Shore is picked up by a transporter beam from the Enterprise on his wedding night to Denny and entrapped in a future far, far away, where his legal skills are needed by a starship captian who looks exactly like his earth husband, Denny,but much young

Captain: We have an earthling stowaway (slash)

Captain James T. Kirk was at the helm of the Starship Enterprise when he got an urgent call from Scotty down in the transporter room.

"Captain Kirk! I think we have a stowaway from our last Earth visit." Scotty boomed over the intercom.

"What kind of stowaway?" Captain wanted to know.

"A 21st century professional by the looks of him, And an American."

"Hold him there and I'll be right down to have a look at him. Does he speak English?"

"Certainly does, Captain. Says he is a lawyer by trade!"

Kirk jumped from his swivel chair with excitement and headed down to the transporter room.

There he met a medium height man of 40 or so, beautifully dressed and groomed. And extraordinarily handsome, looking lost and confused. When he saw Kirk, he leaped with joy. "Denny! Where are we, and how did you get so thin and younger than mI am?"

"Sir," Kirk addressed him. surprised at his familiar tone. "I don't believe I know you! But you must have been caught in our transporter beam by mistake. I'm not sure how all these things work, but you seem to be several centuries behind us in linear time terms. And you name is..?"

"It's Alan, your spouse and love mate!"

Now Kirk looked totally confused. "I think you have mistaken me for someone else, sir."

"Oh, no, not another mix-up! First your show got canceled, then our show got canceled, I was hoping that you had been transferred here to live again."

"Our show has never really canceled," Kirk disputed. "It has just appeared in other forms. You must have taken me for that gay captain, Picard."

"No," cried Alan with real pain in his voice. "It was always you that I loved, even when you became disabled with Alzheimer's Disease!"

"I don't think I can be accused of having the diminished capacity of the unfortunate condition. What do you think, Scotty?"

Scotty looked down at his hands, afraid of entering such an odd conversation.. "Accidental transfers are not unknown. But this man does seem to have a coherent memory. Why not have Bones have a look at him? Maybe the transporter scrambled his memory.

Alan's eyes brimmed with tears, and he seemed on the point of a breakdown. He had had an odd sensation right after his marriage to Denny at Nimmo Bay, feeling displaced, but he attributed it to a day of unusually strong emotion. But it seemed to have occurred right after his wedding dance with Denny on his balcony, and at that point he felt transported, anyway. Now, from dancing under the stars to a strange scientific but alien environment, he opened his eyes to a twinkling presence in an inside room on a very unfamiliar craft. He didn't get headaches very often, but now he had a whopper. And Denny standing before him, in a high official-looking suit of some kind, and Denny seemed not to recognize him, but seeming to be only about his late twenties or early thirties, and had a very official bearing. "Denny," Alan began again, "am I caught up in one of your mental ramblings?" Denny had begun recently to have a more and more realistic dream life, and he had described many of them to Alan. Alan imagined that receiving the new drug would diminish that soon, but for now, he was just rolling with the punches. "Denny, I have no idea what's going on here, but don't you remember the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court joining us in marriage in Canada?"

"As I recall, Canada was always a little out in left field, but some one from the Supreme Court of the UnitedStates, how would he even have legal powers?. Why would he even condone same sex marriage?"

"Aw, Denny, you actually had come around to a little more progressive mind set by the time you asked me to marry you. Have you regressed to a total conservative now?"

"I don't consider that a regression!" Kirk replied with hostility. "I don't understand why you think you know me, much less are legally committed to me!"

"What is this place?" Alan moaned, in distress.

"This is the United Federation of Planets Starfleet's ship Enterprise. Are you from some previous time period, uncle?"

Alan imagine how a 40+ man would appear to a 30+ young man. "I was born in 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts. And you?"

Without missing a beat, Denny told him, "Riverside, Iowa, in 2233. Wow that's a hell of an age difference for a married couple!"

"Well, I was about 40 when we married and you were in your 70's"

"But now, I am 2,743 years older than you"

Alan protested vainly, "But when we were married I was 32 years younger than you and it never mattered to either of us!"

"We must have been very much in love,"Kirk laughed, "and the sex must have been very good!"

"That's just not true! We married because we were the very best of friends, and you had Alzheimer's disease, and you wanted a partner, to help you through your last days. And I loved you enough to help you through those days! We were always the closest companions of anyone!"

"I must have been a very desperatate man then to marry another man!" Kirk groaned.

"You had to be there!" Alan pleaded.

"I am here and I don't think I want to be married. "Does Massachusetts grant men married to men to divorce?"

"Of course, with sufficient grounds."

"Is 2,743 years if age difference enough grounds enough?" Kirk queried.

"If the laws now are as they were then, probably." Alan began to weep seriously. "But Denny, I love you with or without sex. The most I have ever loved anyone! Don't you think we want to think this over and give it some time?"

Kirk replied, "Maybe if we give you a couple of weeks to adjust here and you become useful, we can meet again and talk between us, I can see you are intense and sincere and well-educated. I fear that as a lawyer in this time you would have a lot of studying to get up to speed with the current law. I never wanted to study law myself, but I have had to learn some to ascend to my rank in the Starfleet. I never found it interesting, but it is necessary. It might be good to have someone aboard who knows such things."

Alan's eyes brightened a bit, and he said,"The law itself was never the goal. Helping people was!"

"That is right up our alley, although I think that helping people has changed a bit is all these years, and the 'people' to help are often than the 'people' you know. Extra-terrestrials can be very different, you know. And since I am not suffering with dementia, I may not as interesting to you!"

"Love and friendship are not changeable things, Denny, or, excuse me, Captain Kirk. You and Denny are not so different after all, you know! Except your attractiveness is inequitable!"

"Oh, yeah ?" Kirk quieried. "You mean that you settled for some one a lot less attractive than you are?"

"No, Denny's beauty is in the eye of the beholder!"

"Captain Kirk, is it possible to re-deposit me where I was? My partner, Denny, must be frantic by now. In the dark and alone suddenly!"

"He doesn't sound like any prize," mused Captain Kirk. "Afraid of the dark? Fearing solitude?"

"No, no, no, no," Alan protested. "You have to understand him! He is ill and feeling abandoned right now!"

"He'll feel even more abandoned if I divorce you!"

Alan screwed his face into a contortion of disbelief ,"You wouldn't! You couldn't! I have been at the bar enough years to be able to prevent any move you may make in that direction!"

"I'm not sure how it is done on Earth right now, but I seem to remember enough about marital law to believe I CAN, if you continue with this travesty!"

Alan came back quickly with: "If you are indeed in any way connected to my husband, I am sure that you cannot find it in yourself to be so cruel and uncaring! Denny has been granted the right to an experimental drug which as yet has no FDA approval, but which just may prolong his life and mind for an unknown period of time with his full faculties. I petitioned the Supreme Court to gain him this chance! There is nothing in my life which has importance over this. Denny is why I am living, alone!"

"You are a remarkable person yourself, I think, to put the sanity and health of another before your own. With or without sex, that takes a special kind of love! OK, let's give it at least two weeks and see how this works out. I'm sure that you feel that you have already endured more than your limit for this man. As soon as we come to an agreement, we will reverse course and strive to put you back in his arms, celebrating your wedding day! Does that sound fair?" Kirk looked into Alan's eyes to see his reaction, and saw the profound relief on his face. "I can only hope to end my own life with such love!"

"Overwhelmingly fair, Captain Kirk". said Alan, thinking to himself seeing that I had no right to plead for your understanding in such a place and situation. (Am I dreaming, Alan thought to himself).

Alan was assigned a sleeping area and given a "visitor" badge for the time he was to be on board. He was assigned a computer portal where he was to study intergalactic law. Of course the computer was far beyond anything he had ever used, and had all Starfleet information removed in case he represented some one not who had said he was. So any study on the current law was somewhat limited, but he decided to do his best.

About every third day, Kirk came and got Alan for lunch. Alan started every time he saw Kirk, it was so much like having Denny reappear as a handsome, svelte young man with all the grace he imagined Denny to have had in his youth. Now his heart ached even more for his own Denny, imagining that he could see his face before him, but disease-free and fit. Suddenly his heart pounded in a way that it never had for his Denny. One evening,Kirk came to see Alan in his quarters after low lights came on in the corridors. Kirk wanted to know how Alan was making out with the intergalactic law studies. Alan admitted that it was a struggle, harder than the simpler earth law because it covered so many kinds of beings, and he wondered aloud to Kirk how long it would be until he actually saw and met some of these creatures. Kirk said it might be any day and revealed that there was an upcoming intergalactic meeting to work on some rules and bylaws. "I am hoping that you will be sufficiently conversant with intergalactic law to be able to aid him some with his contribution to the conference. "Don't you think I know what a hodge-podge this sort of law is? I have been struggling to master it since I took command of this ship!" Suddenly, the lights in Alan's cabin failed completely, and Kirk got on his communicator to find out what was going on. "Our twilight period seems to have slipped into a full dark mode to last until our simulated morning.. Scotty and his crew are working on it. This happens from time to time."

"This is hardly the time to study," mused Alan. "What do we do now?"

"When this happens, most of us just take it as a gift and get some sorely needed extra rest time," Kirk told him, except that in your case it may be a bit more awkward. The cabin doors lock automatically and do not open again until the designated dawn time."

"Well, it sounds like a welcome break to me as well. I have been at this steadily for 12 hours, and I could use a break from it. Of course, you are welcome to stay what's left of the night. Your ship seems to have provided plenty of comfortable sleeping quarters!"

"Most of the cabins have sleeping space for only one crew member, but, you have been afforded married crew members sleeping space, since that is all there was extra."

"You may be uncomfortable, Captain, but I can assure you that Denny and I spooned almost every night anyway, and I have been missing that desparately."

"We seem to have lost the term spoon over time. Explain, please."

"It would be much easier to demonstrate." With the help of the emergency auxillary lights in the cabin, Alan got into the double sleeping bed, and lifted the covers, inviting Kirk under the covers with him. Then he wrapped his arms around Kirk's waist and pulled him back into a sitting position on his lap. "Just relax, Captain," and Kirk did after some initial squirming and he lay back into Alan's arms.

"What is the etiquette here? If one wants to get up, what does one do?"

"Well, it is not a prison, and one just gets up, no offense taken by the other." The fatigue of each of them caused both men to relax rather quickly and begin to doze sooner rather than later.

"One more question, Mr. Shore? Is one supposed to feel a sexual component in this position?"

" I think it is rather voluntary, but not required. I suppose you refer to the erection you feel in your back"

"Yes, I do!"

"Captain Kirk, please forgive a man deprived of his lover for longer than he has ever been...I'm sorry to make you uncomfortable! Believe me!"

"I got the impression that you and Denny were not sexual with each other."

"Not being sexual doesn't mean that one or the other had no sexual feelings about the other. I must confess, that I was never comfortable with that arrangement."

"But, you are not homosexual, are you?"

"No, but I am sexual, rather intensely so!"

"So your lover never fulfilled you to your satisfaction."

"No, but with his inspiration, I was able to fulfill myself."

"But there was a considerable age difference between you."

"Love often fails to consider age in the matter! Rest, or it will be my fault that you are not up to your usual capabilities tomorrow, Captain."

Kirk did not sleep without dreams that night, but none for which he wished for anyone else to know.

Alan settled back and slept soundly for the first time since he had entered that environment. On waking, he resolved more than ever to master intergalactic law. Not just to help the Captain, but to ingratiate himself with Captain Kirk as much as he could.

Cpt Kirk the next morning awoke and slipped out of Alan's room. He peered about himself, to see if anyone would see him emerging from Alan's room. After he determined that there was no one in the hall, he made his way back to his own quarters, where he lay on his own bunk reviewing the previous night, He could come up with no excuse for what he had felt. He believed that now he himself was looking forward to Alan being on board, for Alan himself! He envied the loyalty and love that Denny had obtained for himself! Kirk felt almost lonely in comparison to Denny. What he had felt in his closeness to Alan last night was amazingly comforting to him! The prospective protection of Alan's legal skills made him feel like at the Starfleet conference, the Enterprise would be represented and guarded from any unwanted outcomes at the conference. It was not so much that Kirk expected the Enterprise to be attacked from any point, but if it were, he felt that they would be defended well. And any advance that they wanted to make would be put forth in a strong and reputable manner. He had had Spock look into this man's professional history, and he seemed not only of good repute, but also highly respected, and his court record proclaimed his competence and skill in his own area, one whose legal career was only cut short by his retirement to care for his spouse. Kirk had spoken to Spock about the plausibility of his story, and Spock. had seen it as highly possible. Spock had spoken to Alan himself, and relayed to Jim (Kirk) a feeling of total confidence in the man. That was high praise, as weird as the story itself seemed.
Alan continued to study Intergalactic law diligently. At least once a day, Jim stopped in to see him, and always Alan's answer was the same. "I don't feel confident in Intergalactic law yet. Maybe if you tell me something about the sort of case you intend to make, I can put it in perspective." At last, Jim tried to put into words the nature of the case he intended to put before the Intergalactic court. It concerned the intellectual property of each intergalactic entity and the unit's right to maintain in control of that property.

Alan considered the case in terms of 21st Century American law. "That would probably be like copyright law. Not a field in which I feel competent," Alan opined. "Nevertheless, I am familiar with it, now all I need to do is to apply copyright law to Intergalactic law." Alan rubbed his forehead and moaned "I have a headache already..Even on Earth in the 21st Century The level of 'originality required was not susceptible to a precise definition and was the subject of a considerable body of case law. As well, the degree of unauthorized use use which constitutes INFRINGEMENT is difficult to delineate. for a written work, the copyright is said to extend 'only to the arrangement of words'. A copyright does not give monopoly in any incident in a play. Other authors have a right to exploit the facts, experiences and field of thought and general ideas, provided they do not substantially copy a concrete form, in which the circumstances and ideas have been developed arranged and put into shape." Alan quoted by remembering 21st century United States law.

"That sounds very lawyerly," Jim stated. "But of course I am not a lawyer, so what do I know?"

"Yeah, much less for intergalactic law of this period." Alan posited, hesitatingly. "Is this anything to do with the intellectual property of Mr. Spock?"

"Good guess, earthman," guessed Jim. Even with his not being from the period, Kirk could see that he had a good sense of what was true. This guy could really be helpful! But how ethical is it to use an accidental traveler this way? Well, he does want to be returned to his life. Even if we were the cause of his displacement.

As by, the intergalactic conference rolled around, and Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Bones and Alan beamed from the transporter room on the Enterprise to the conference site on an Intergalactic mainship. They stepped onto the transporter room floor and went to find the assembly room, stopping to register their presence and point of origin and were issued name badges. Of course, Jim was stopped numerous times for greetings with other intergalactic members, who had known him from previous incidents. He made the proper introductions of the men with him. He and Alan stopped briefly to consult about the upcoming program, and he made sure that Alan was not ignorant of the program coming up. They sat down in the auditorium, program listings in hand. When Alan's turn came up to speak, Jim was impressed with his presentation. For Alan it was not unlike a courtroom. At least that far he felt comfortable. He spoke with his usual stunning understanding of the future copyright law. Many people before had been stunned with Alan's insight and grasp of the subject, and so were the intergalactic members. Several people who had met him through Jim wondered who he was and how he had such a grasp of intergalactic law. Jim told him that the council would consider his presentation and then rule in a couple of days! Two days turned out to be a long time when they were waiting in a strange place for a ruling that could limit Spock's ideas and inventions, but the station had plenty to do and read and enough computer stations to accommodate all the members attending the conference. Finally, Alan came to the Enterprise crew and announced, "A verdict has been reached." They all returned to the courtroom immediately, and settled in to hear the verdict read. The administrator of the galactic court stood behind his podium and read that the laws for galactic intellectual property had been widened to include Vulcan properties as those to be included in the galactic law and copyright law. Jim stood and embraced Alan heartily as did Spock as well. Alan looked Jim in the eyes, and asked, "That was a once in a lifetime experience, hopefully no more?"

Jim looked at him clear-eyed and asked if return to Boston of the 21st century was his decision.

Alan said in a loud and decided voice, "Undoubteldy!"

" Okay, let's all get back to the Enterprise and consult with Spock and Scotty to ascertain just how to do that most efficiently and most safely!"

The four men made haste to the Intergalactic transporter room and began discussing the best way to return Alan to Denny's embrace on his balcony on their wedding evening. The disparity of time periods was the most intensely examined, and the settings for the previous Earth pass were retrieved from the records, and the probabilities were debated. Alan sat quietly by and observed as a non-player at the final game for the world cup, he felt such joy from the anticipation that he could hardly remain in his seat. The miracle of his arriving here in the first place was so far beyond his understanding that he could hardly imagine getting back. How would Denny ever understand his learning in Intergalactic Law? He could only trust the people who had accidentallly brought him here, he could see that. He had no idea how they did it, so he had no alternative ut to trust them to return him. Surely the success he had had with the copyright case would not convince them that he was not possible to do without. Even in his best cases, he had never found himself to be indispensable.

Jim Kirk came to sit beside Alan on the bridge, where he had been assigned a special chair so that he might watch the forward vision of the Enterprise's progress through. It was a calming scenario where ht could think without distractions, Everyone on the bridge seemed to speak in quiet tones (except when something that required attention was going on). Jim sat down in a chair near him so that he need not raise his voice to have Alan hear him. "Alan," Jim had been calling him since the night when they were forced into close proximity by the mslfunctioning of the timer onboard the Enterprise. "The senior staff of the Enterprise have been discussing the safest and surest way of returning you to you husband in Boston, 21st century, and at last we are in pretty strong agreement about how not only to return tot the time period and the coordinates from which you were snatched, and we are willing and ready to try it, if you are. Of course, tne safest way to proceed would to keep you aboard here in this time and hope to make you comfortable and make you useful to us and to yourself, but I get the impression that you prefer to return to your recently wed husband in his own time, to continue your lives together. Do I have that right?"

"Yes!" Alan responded strongly, "not to be ungracious for your reception of me and your allowing me to stay here and to learn law of the future! But I do long to continue to care for Denny at a time of life when I expect that he will need me greatly. He really is the male love of my life, and we are so well-matched that I don't feel that my life can be complete without him. This episode will always be the adventure of a life-time, and I will never feel my life could be complete without this opportunity." Alan felt like he had been granted all the tales of the Arabian Nights and if he could now return to his love safely, he felt truly blessed. "When would you like me to report to the transporter room?"

"As soon as you have assembled all the things you wish to have accompany you back to Earth," Jim said. "taking as little of what was here when you came as possible, of course."

"Naturally" Alan agreed. "Does that mean later today?"

"Maybe around 5 pm, EDT, Boston time, and if yo need help deciding when that is, just ask any of those who went with you to the Intergalactic Conference."

Alan was grateful that Jim had included that last sentence, as soon as Jim had said that, Alan realized that he had no idea what time it would be now in Boston. He quietly asked Jim what time that would be aboard the Enterprise, and when Jim told him, Alan mentally noted that it would be about the time that dinner would be served on the Enterprise. He thanked Jim profusely and hurried to his onboard assigned room to gather whatever had been beamed up with him when he had arrived.

Then, at the time for dinner to be served on the Enterprise, Alan appeared in the transporter room. Scotty, Jim, Spock, and even bones were already assembled there. Alan again expressed his thanks, and each of them apologized for his inadvertent arrival there. Alan expressed the sense he had of genuine welcoming aboard the Enterprise, and the lack of resentment for his delay in return to Earth. Scotty attempted to explain what he believed to be the cause of the transporter error, and how the upcoming attempt seemed that it would reverse the error., and why they all believed it would be effective. Alan stepped onto the transporter platform on an active site. He checked his watch and saw that the time would be about 5:30 EDT in Boston right about the time that he would be dispatched. Then, with a twinkling of lights around him, he felt the cool air on Denny's balcony in the early spring. He felt Denny's arms around him warmly, and recognized that Denny was leading the dance, as always, and Denny started and jumped back. "Where did you go for a moment?"

Alan got his balance and resumed his embrace of Denny. "Denny, you will never believe me when I tell you! How long has it been that I was missing?"

"You weren't really missing, you just sort of blinked off and on! I don't know how to describe it exactly."

"That's incredible!" Alan replied. "One minute you were right here with your arms around me, and we were celebrating our wedding, the next I was on a Starfleet Vessel in the year approximately 2200 a.d.! Do you see why I told you you will never believe me!"

"A what vessel?" Denny commented at the top of his lungs.

" Apparently in about the year 2200 ad, the staffed planets of this Solar System have a fleet of starships to patrol this section of the galaxy."

"What staffed planets?" Denny questioned incredulously.

"You'll just have to humor me on this, it is far beyond anything of which I have ever heard!" Alan sat in his chair and felt suddenly winded and worn down. Even he could hardly believe it. He had never been a science fiction fan, and had never even read a book of this sort or watched a science fiction movie or television show. He had never question himself or anyone else about the possiblities of other life in the galaxy, although he had heard some opinions from other people on the topic. He had no idea how Denny would view the subject. He guessed that Denny would probably have some definite views on the topic, as he did on most things already. " I don't know what staffed planets, Denny. but I have heard some people express ideas about our not being alone in the galaxy, that's all I know. But the comander of this particular starship, the Enterprise, could have been your identical great, great grandson! But a lot younger, born in the year 2233 a.d., and slim and trim, well muscled and extremely handsome.!

"Does this mean that I have some competition?"

"Don't be daft, Denny. All I cared about at the time was that he respected my legal mind and had the confidence in me to allow me to study intergalactic law on their computers up to the point that I could help them out with some copyright law of the time. Captain Kirk was so pleased with my studies that he offered to replace me in Boston, where they had intercepted me in your arms, and on the same evening. It was extraordinary! I told them about you, my husband, and let them know that instead of living in the future with them as a lawyer on the Enterprise at that time, I insisted that I be returned to exactly this time, and here I am!"

"Well, it's a wonder that you returned! The atmosphere and the population sounds so advanced that it's a wonder you didn't stay!"

"On the evening of our wedding? Oh, come on, Denny, this has been one of the happiest days of my life or even, as I expect, my life to be in the future! Don't make this pure non-sense! I love you and couldn't possibly have lived without you!"

"Well, I guess that is some comfort, dear spouse-of-mine! Anyway you chose to come back to Boston and your husband rather than stay with my younger, handsomer, thinner double."

"Youth isn't everything, Denny. There really is true love, as little as I once believed it possible. Besides, I think that Kirk has a thing for Spock."

"And how do you know that? Did you sleep with either?"

"As a matter of fact, the timer on the Enterprise malfunctioned on night and set the twilight time earlier than we had expected it, then locked us all in our cabins early for the night."

"Locking you in with who?"

"Captain Kirk had just come in to find out how I was coming with my familiarity with Intergalactic Law."

"And was he able to do anything to get out?"

"As a matter of fact, he wasn't, and he said the malfuntion had happened before anad hadn't been properly repaired, He was discomfitted, but I told him there was plenty of room in my bunk if he liked. I told him that you and I had spooned from the beginning of our co-habitation."

"I guess he won't be expecting to be my great, great grandson, then."

"He was a perfect gentleman and laid quietly all night.

"And you?"

"Frankly, Denny, I had the first sound sleep since I had left you! Imagining you in my arms again!"

"Ahh! Even if you are not completly honest, you are a good enough lawyer to lie to the client's satisfaction!"

"It's all true, my luv!"

"Well, I am exhausted, and I really feel like spooning!"

"That sounds great to me, too!" Alan replied and they both finished their scotches and headed for their own lovin' spoonful!

The Beginning