Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek or any of the characters. I own Evie.
Light snoring. That's what was heard throughout the large room as Montgomery Scott sat sleeping at his desk. Watching him sleep, a light chuckle escaped the throat of a young girl.
This was Evelyn Scott, though she preferred to be called "Evie". She was young, as in barely 17 years old. Though youthful, that did not mean she was naïve. Her uncle, the aforementioned sleeper, had taught her well in the field of engineering. She loved to tinker with technology, though lately it became harder to find any. She couldn't complain, though. She had chosen to come along.
Footsteps caught her attention. They were too heavy to be Keenser's. And it sounded like more than one person. She remained in her spot, hoping it wouldn't turn into a bad situation.
She heard her uncle mumble sleepily. Perhaps he had woken up?
"Visitors." She heard Keenser say.
Well, Keenser seemed to trust these people. But, where did they come from? Wait! Were they, perhaps, delivering food? At last!
She listened as her uncle grumbled a bit, hearing him shift in his seat.
"You realize how unacceptable this is?" He said in his thick accent.
After a moment, another voice replied, sounding confused.
"Excuse me?"
It was male, and sounded perhaps a bit older than herself.
"Fascinating…"
This voice was also male, but sounded quite a bit older.
"What?"
The first voice still sounded confused.
Almost as if he had completely ignored them, her uncle continued. "I'm sure it's nae your fault, and I know ye lads are jut doin' your job, but could ye nae have come a wee bit sooner?" He asked, clearly frustrated.
"I beg your pardon?" The younger voice asked, as though he had nothing else to say.
She heard more footsteps. Her uncle was pacing now, she knew.
"I mean, six months we've been livin' on nothing but Starfleet protein nibs and the promise of a real food delivery! It's pretty clear what's going on here, isn't it? Punishment! Ongoing! Without me havin' recourse to so much as an appeal. For something that was clearly an accident." He ranted.
"You're Montgomery Scott." The elder voice stated simply.
"You know him?" The other voice questioned.
"Aye, that's me. 'Scotty' to me friends. You've got the right man." There was a pause. "Where'd that little runt go? Evie!" She heard him call.
She came out from around one of the machines not too far away. She saw the newcomers for the first time. The younger seemed to be in his mid-twenties, with short brown hair and bright blue eyes. He had several cuts and bruises on his face.
The elder was well above the age of any man she had ever seen. She could not determine any age from him. His ears told her that he was Vulcan.
"Ah, there's the little lassie. This here's my niece, Evelyn Scott." Her uncle introduced.
She smiled warmly. "Please, call me 'Evie'." She insisted.
"Are there any other hardworking and equally starved Starfleet officers around?" Scotty added.
Keenser seemed offended. "Me."
Her uncle glared at him. "You eat nothing. A bean, and you're done for a week." He looked pained. "We need food." He turned back to the others. "And now you're here. So, thank you." He looked behind them. "Where is it?"
"You are in fact the Montgomery Scott who postulated the theory of transwarp beaming." The elder said, though not accusingly. He was Vulcan, after all.
Her uncle just stared at the man. "How d'ya think I ended up here? Too smart to waste and too reckless to trust: that's how they described me at the— well, it wasn't a court-martial, exactly. They couldn't find a suitable regulation with which to charge me. So they resorted to callin' it a straight 'transfer'. Woulda been better if they'd 'transferred' me to a jail on Earth. Or at least to some half-civilized world. Anything'd be better than this." He motioned to the entire facility. "Look at this place, willya? A man kinna even deteriorate in the company of his own species!"
Evie huffed, but otherwise stayed quiet.
Her uncle turned to the younger man. "But then, you're too young and innocent to know about anything like that, laddie." He said.
The man just looked at the Scotsman. "You'd be surprised at what I know. What did you do to get yourself posted to this vacation paradise? And what's she doing here?" He asked, nodding his head in Evie's direction.
Now, this was something that got Montgomery Scott going. "I got into a debate with my instructor on the issue of relativistic physics as they relate to subspace travel. He seemed to think the range of transporting a, say, roast turkey, was limited to a few hundred kilometers. So I told him not only could I beam a bird from one planet in the same system, which is no big deal anyway, but that if I were so inclined I could actually do it with a viable life-form. Long-range transwarp beaming is supposed to be impossible." He snorted. "Difficult maybe, but not impossible."
"Says you." The younger man said.
"Says I, aye."
"And I."
Scotty smiled fondly at Evie. "My mistake was in attemptin' a practical demonstration. Unfortunately, for a test subject I chose Admiral Archer's prized beagle." He shook his head. "Shoulda scanned the little mutt's ident implant first, I suppose."
The young man seemed surprised. "I know of the admiral— and his dog. What happened to it?"
Scotty could only look away. "I'll tell ye when it reappears. I'm convinced it will, one of these days. Somewhere. Somehow. If I'd known it was the bloody admiral's I would've been more careful. Sweet dog though. Nice ears. I feel guilty."
"When Admiral Archer found out, he demanded that he be court-martialed. But since he didn't technically go against regulations, he was 'transferred' here. I decided to tag along. After all, it wasn't like he did it on purpose." Evie added.
The elder man decided to finally speak, only towards Scotty. "What if I told you that your theory was correct? That it is indeed possible to beam from a fixed point onto a ship traveling at warp speed? And that you only required the correct field equation for the continuous recrystallization of dilithium while transwarp is in progress? And availability of sufficient power for the transporter being used, of course."
Scotty and Evie looked at each other wearily. "Haven't been out of touch that long." He said. "If such an equation had been discovered and verified, we'd 'ave heard." He shook his head.
"Delta Vega's out of the loop, but not completely out of touch. We keep up as best we can. Otherwise we'd go crazy here. And we haven't heard of any such development." Evie crossed her arms, thinking.
"The reason you haven't heard of it, Miss Scott, is because your uncle hasn't discovered it yet."
It seemed that the younger man didn't know about a thing that was going on. Wait… Hasn't discovered it yet? How could it be that..? Unless, somehow, this man was not from the current time frame. She stared at him in awe.
"And how would you know something like that?" Scotty asked. "You said 'yet'. Heard ye plain as day. Come from another time, do ya? From the future? Brilliant! Do they still have sandwiches where ye come from?"
"Piece an' jam?"
"Mince an' tatties?"
"Cockaleekie soup?"
"What're they talking about?" The young man asked, thoroughly confused.
"Food." Keenser answered.
"I'm not gonna believe anything anyone says without something more than their word to back it up." Evie said, tilting her head almost in an untrusting manner. "Personally, I think you're full of month-old haggis, but I'm so bored here that I'm willing to listen to anybody's tale, no matter how tall. So let's see if ye can support your whimsy with something more than talk." She grinned, leaning against the desk. "That's 'logical', ain't it?" She added.
Scotty laughed. "Took the words right out of my mouth, lassie. You've been around me too long."
The Vulcan looked at Evie. "Indeed it is, Miss Scott. If you will allow us access to your shuttlepod I will gladly show you what a genius your uncle actually is."
As Scotty and Keenser debated, Evie studied the two. "I don't believe I caught your names." She said, uncrossing her arms.
"James T. Kirk." The younger man offered a hand, which she accepted.
"Spock." The Vulcan identified himself.
"You have a sharp tongue there. You don't look a day older than 14, though. Reminds me of a crewmember. Pavel Chekov." Kirk said thoughtfully.
"I thank you for the compliment, but I'm actually 17." She said with a smile.
Before either Kirk or Spock could reply, it seemed that Scotty had come to a decision.
He had led them to the spacepod, and motioned to the console. "Have at it, future man." He said.
Evie was in awe of the way Spock moved as he typed in the equation. In almost no time at all, he was finished, and he stood from his seat to allow the Scotts to check it.
"Rapid. That's impressive."
"Your equations for achieving transwarp beaming— Mister Scott."
Evie was already reading over the equation, though not as quickly as it was written.
"No way…" She breathed.
"Carry the omega— twelve to the fourth— imagine that! Never occurred to me to think of space as the part that's moving. No wonder I could never resolve the central string! I was looking at it from the perspective of the beamer instead of the beamed."
"Point of fact, it did occur to you." Spock pointed out before sitting back down and typing more.
"What're you doing now?" Scotty asked curiously, watching Spock. "Adjunct equations?"
Spock just kept typing. "On our way here, Captain— Lieutenant Kirk— you informed me that your current acting captain intended to set a course directly for the Laurentian system with the intention of rendezvousing there with the rest of Starfleet."
Kirk nodded. "That's right. Knowing— him— I doubt that once his mind is set on a course of action he would be unlikely to change it."
Evie thought she saw a hint of a smile. But only a hint. "Yes. He sounds quite fixed in his ways. I can sympathize." But he became serious. "Prior to departing for that destination he detoured briefly to deposit you here. It is therefore not difficult to extrapolate the Enterprise's logical and most practical vector between Delta Vega and Laurentia."
Scotty frowned. " 'Enterprise'?" He looked at Kirk. "Had its maiden voyage already, has it? Well, well, ye must've done something right to be assigned to that ship, boyo."
Kirk only looked away. "It's a little complicated."
Scotty grinned. "She's a well-endowed lady, that's for sure. Love to get me hands on her ample nacelles— if you'll pardon the engineering parlance."
Evie just laughed at her uncle's antics.
"This will be your chance, Mister Scott." Spock said.
Evie stopped laughing. "You're serious about tryin' this, aren't you? What am I thinking— of course you're serious. Vulcans don't believe in practical jokes."
She completely ignored what her uncle had to say. She knew he was explaining the impossibilities. She already knew the odds. And all his ways of explaining them.
"Ease off the similes, Mister Scott, or you will exhaust your arsenal before you depart." Spock seemed to be interrupting Scotty. He sat back. "I calculate no more than a four-meter margin of error provided transport is energized within the next ten minutes— local time."
"That's all well and good, unless you rematerialize four meters outside the ship, or in a solid slab of metal. Not that I'm buyin' this technical twaddle for one minute, you understand." Scotty said, crossing his arms.
Spock didn't seem fazed. "Agreed. Therefore I determine that the aft engineering bay is the best option. A large open space, no unpredictable airlocks, located well within the ship in an area with which you will be familiar. And most importantly, one with a remote access point that will allow you to override the helm and redirect the ship's course." It finally seemed that he was done typing. "Well, Mister Scott? You said you have confidence in yourself as well as in your future selves. Do you have confidence enough to put your abilities to an actual, practical test?"
After a moment of consideration, Scotty let out that wild grin. "At the hearin' about the dog they said that unless I straightened up I was going to the dogs. Aye, Mister Pointy-ear, let's do it! What's the worst that can happen? That I spread meself all over a wide corner of the cosmos? Better to go out in a flash than a footnote." He turned to Evie, who quirked an eyebrow at him. "Evie, come with me. I promised to take care of you, an' I intend to keep that promise."
Evie smiled up at him. "Like I'd let you go alone." She said.
He just smiled back before turning to Kirk. "And you, Lieutenant— Kirk, was it?"
"I don't have any choice, Mister Scott— Scotty. There's far more at stake here than you yet realize. And I can't do anything about it if I'm stuck here on this planet. No matter how convivial the company or engaging the surroundings."
After Evie calmed Keenser down about them leaving, she gave her uncle a hug in excitement. "What do you think it's like?" She asked him, her eyes twinkling.
"Gorgeous, I'm sure. And I'll bet they have—"
"Yeah, and with—"
"Absolutely, topped with—"
"Delicious."
Scotty called out to Kirk. "Aye, then! Live or die, laddie, let's get this over with! The Enterprise has decent food service facilities, I'm guessing." He started whistling as the two made their way to the transporter pad.
Evie rubbed her stomach as she chirped. "Decent meal, here we come."