Disclaimer: I dont own the characters. I'm just playing.
Relics Revisited
She sat quietly listening to the hum of the engines. They were her calm, her sanctuary in a sound. From her cubbyhole, she couldn't be seen and yet everyone knew exactly where to find her. The acoustics in her spot were supreme, perfect even and that was where she went, when she needed time to herself.
She wasn't a Starfleet officer by any means, but she had spent the majority of the latter part of her life with them. She had lived on and loved the Enterprise and the Enterprise A. Later she skipped from starship to starship with her husband for a while. When he finally settled down, it was planet side on Earth. They lost their best friend that year, sadly enough. After the death of Captain Kirk, all the crewmembers of the Enterprise senior staff drifted apart. Uhura stayed in space until the day she died. She was even captain of her own ship. Sulu of course had the Excelsior until she was decommissioned, and he promptly retired. Chekov was never far from Sulu and when his own ship was decommissioned a month after, he also retired. Scotty stayed aboard many a starship until he disappeared on his way to his retirement planet. That left only her, her husband – Dr. McCoy, and Spock who went on to be an ambassador.
The first mission of the Enterprise D found her and Dr. McCoy right there in the thick of things in a manner of speaking. It was more like they were being picked up with the rest of the crew on Farpoint station. She remembered that day vividly. Bones had told Commander Data 'She has the right name. Treat her right and she'll always bring you home'. She knew he was thinking of the days long past when they were all together and flew great missions into uncharted space, with Scotty keeping them together while maintaining his miracle worker status, Uhura at the comm, Sulu at the helm, Chekov, at Navigation, and Spock at science, with Jim in the middle and him leaning over his shoulder. She could picture it like it was yesterday, the sights, the sounds, the interactions, and the camaraderie between all of them that said 'We are family!'. She wished that things were the same.
Not long after the first mission of the Enterprise D, Bones passed away in his sleep. He had a good life, a long life certainly. He was a good husband and a wonderful doctor. She missed him terribly. They had spent close to eighty years together. And yet despite that, she still wanted more time.
The day they found the Dyson sphere, found her in her cubbyhole. She had her guitar in her lap and was serenely strumming along to the gentle hum of the engines. She knew that the others were out there listening with half an ear as they always did when she was playing. It seemed that the sound piped directly into Engineering. Geordi came to get her when they found the shuttle. He figured that since she had been around at the time the shuttle was built that she would have some insight into her engines and systems. She declined by stating that she was not an engineer and therefore would be of little use to him. She flew her own ship, which was simple, and she had never cared to learn how to fly any others. Geordi left her to her music.
What he didn't realize was that she was having a day of memories. The memories were ones of days long past and she was loathe to give them up on that particular day. It was exactly 75 years to the day that they had lost Jim and the foundation that held their family together. She wasn't about to go anywhere on that day.
Geordi beamed over to the ship with Commander Riker and Lieutenant Worf. Examination of the system relays proved useless, as they were jury-rigged beyond recognition. When Geordi materialized the pattern in the buffer though, he came face to face with a legend. Taking Scotty back to the Enterprise and straight to the infirmary was a wise course of action and in doing so gave her the chance to reunite with a member of her surrogate family, even if she wasn't expecting it. Tristan was about to get a wonderful surprise. She walked into the infirmary and paused to talk to one of the nurses, when she heard him.
"Well I'll tell you one thing, the doctors have certainly gotten prettier." Scotty said, teasing Dr. Crusher a bit.
"That's because you're used to staring at Bone's ugly mug. There were pretty doctors in our day too, just not where you could reach them." Tristan said unable to resist the teasing that had always been so natural between them. Scotty's head came up quick like. Her voice was one that he would never forget, nor her face.
"Is it really you lass? Are my eyes decievin' me?" He asked.
"No, I'm here, flesh and bone." Tristan moved close enough so that he could reach out and touch her. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I've missed you." She said it in a quiet whisper that he strained to hear. He was still looking into her eyes, even as they misted over with tears. Scotty reach up and wrapped his arms around her.
"There now lassie, don't cry. I've missed ye too. It seems we all fell about after the Captain left us. There's a girl." He comforted her with soothing motions and held her tight. It wasn't the first time she had found herself in his arms. Often in the days of the original Enterprise, fights between her and Bones would break out. He would seek out Jim and Spock and she would seek out Scotty and sometimes Uhura, but almost always Scotty. Dr. Crusher and Geordi looked on from the sidelines. They didn't quite know what to do. Scotty just waved them off, for the moment. Geordi nodded and headed out the door. He had engineering things to deal with. Dr. Crusher smiled a small smile and pointed to her office. Scotty nodded in response. Tristan eventually loosened her grip on him and stood back.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cry all over you like that. I've just missed you so much. When your ship disappeared I went looking for you but I had no idea where to go. It caused a huge fight between Bones and I, which of course made me even more determined to find you. But I couldn't…Uhura was never a very good shoulder to cry on, but she was the only one that I could reach."
"I'm sorry too lass. I wish that I had kept in touch with you more than I did. I know Mr. Spock went off and made himself an Ambassador, but what did the rest of them do?"
"Chekov and Sulu retired when their ships were decommissioned within a month of each other. They lived in San Francisco until Sulu passed on. Then Chekov went back to Russia. He died a month to the day after Sulu, just like when their ships were retired. They never were far apart in anything they did. Uhura was on her ship up until the day she died. They were in a firefight and were blown to bits. No survivors. Bones and I settled down on Earth but that only lasted for a few years before we were back among the stars. We went to Vulcan a few times to visit with Sarek and Amanda but after Amanda's death we stopped. Then 4 years ago we were on Farpoint station, to be picked up and taken back to Earth. It was the maiden voyage of this Enterprise. The night we got back to our home in Georgia, Bones went to sleep and never woke up. We were together for close to eighty years and he lived a good life. I tried to get in touch with Spock, and let him know about Len, but I couldn't find him. Even Sarek is gone now. I was the only one left until you came out of the sphere." This brought on a fresh wave of tears. Scotty patted her on the back absently, mourning the loss of their family.
"What about your wee ones, did you and the doctor ever have any bairns?" he asked, hoping that there was some comfort for her.
"No, we never did. We were incompatible, you could say." Tristan sniffed for a moment like she was going to cry again.
"Well, you have me now. We'll stick together from now on. I know it's a bit late but I'll be here whenever you need me, lass."
"Thank you Scotty, you always were the best friend a girl could have."
"Now we best let the doctor come back in and finish looking me over. Then we can get out of here and finish catching up on all the good times I missed." Tristan nodded and went to collect the doctor. She waited at Scotty's side until she was finished and cleared him for duty. Tristan and Scotty sat down in ten forward and had a meal before the Captain asked that he assist Geordi in Engineering. Tristan headed for her cabin to wait and to think about everything that he had missed. She dug out some picture albums and some old diary entries so that she could tell Scotty everything. They planned to meet for dinner that evening.
Scotty just didn't understand why the young man was so forceful. He was only trying to help. He guessed those were the curses of being outdated and behind the times. He headed back to ten forward where he met up with Lt. Commander Data. Data introduced him to the yellow liquid that Guinan kept beneath the bar. The real stuff, instead of that synthehol. Scotty took the bottle and went to collect Tristan. They headed to the holodeck and sat on the bridge of the original Enterprise. That was where Captain Picard found them. commiserating.
"Would you like a drink Captain?" Scotty asked gesturing with the bottle.
"I believe I'd like that." Scotty poured him a drink
"Be careful with that it packs a punch. I'm not sure what it is though…" He trailed off as the Captain downed the glass.
"Aldebarean Whiskey. I gave it to Guinan. Tristan, is that you hiding back there?" Tristan sat up a little straighter and gazed steadily at the Captain before nodding.
"We were just wallowing in our uselessness. Care to join us?" She said quietly, almost too quietly. The tone of her voice giving away much more than her face.
"Uselessness? There isn't such a thing…"
"Aye, but there is Captain. I have since out lived it. I'm not up to date on all the new technologies and I only get in the way." Scotty mused.
"We wont even delve into how useful I've been." Tristan mumbled.
"Uselessness is not an option. You simply learn to adapt. When you don't know something, study up on it. I realize that you aren't up to date on all the systems now, but they are still basically that same. They apply the laws of physics; they can be altered and jury-rigged. It's the same systems running in new ways. Its doesn't take long to learn them again." This seemed to brighten Scotty, but Tristan remained unmoved.
When the time came, Scotty left the Enterprise D. He was headed for a star base to re-qualify on all the tests that were needed to be an engineer in the 24th century. He forgot about his promise to Tristan and she was left behind on the ship. Several weeks after Scotty left, Tristan took her small shuttle and disappeared. There were rumors of a ship seen flying into a sun not a sector away from the Enterprise's location 3 days later.