The Future's Past

Co-written by Aurora-cs and Matt Morwell

Chapter two - In which Aura meets the Enterprise crew

Aura didn't know where she was.

She could hear distant voices, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't speak and they drifted away, leaving her to think and wonder.

Whoever and whatever they belonged to, the voices were garbled and senseless, but there was more than one, with tones that suggested they were male and female.

Despite feeling as if she were on fire, with every inch of her body burning and sending spasms of pain through her body, Aura tried to move, but couldn't, so instead tried to open her eyes.

This was a simple enough task and she managed to open them halfway to see that the voices belonged to humans.

A spark of fear shot through her, momentarily driving the pain away.

She had met humans before and though some had welcomed her, others hadn't, and with the main reason for leaving Mobius because of what Robotnik - a human - had done to her, Aura felt her fear was justified.

This particular human looked harmless enough, appearing to be of an older age from the wrinkles on his face and the bags under his eyes, though on the other hand, perhaps he was simply tired. Aura didn't know, but he was hovering over her and passing some sort of device over her chest and tutting and she winced in anticipation of more pain, knowing from experience that you couldn't be too careful with humans.

However, all she felt was a slight stinging pain in her arm, and tried to crane her head up to see what was causing it, but the human pressed two fingers against her forehead and gently pushed her back down.

Aura frowned - couldn't she at least be allowed to see what was going on?

"Sorry kiddo. Can't have you moving just yet."

Aura tried to respond, but her throat felt dry and sore when she tried to clear it. "W...Why not?"

The human's head snapped up and his eyes narrowed. "You speak English?" He sounded genuinely surprised.

Aura nodded. "Not as well as my own language."

The human nodded. "Strange, I would have expected Standard, but still, you apparently know English well enough. That'll make helping you a lot easier." He paused. "I can't let you get up yet, you're very ill."

Aura tried to protest, but a comfortable warm feeling was washing over her, her eyelids felt heavy and suddenly her body didn't feel so pained and stressed. In fact it now felt quite warm and inviting and she couldn't stop herself yawning and letting the darkness take her once more, deciding she could at least rest with the knowledge that this human was trying to help her.

When she fell asleep, McCoy continued to work on her, taking constant readings and continuing the injection of carefully medicated saline to stabilise her.

Spock could see that the girl appeared to be resting comfortably now, her breathing wasn't as ragged and quick and it was good to know that she would recover.

The question invariably remained why she had been on that planet, but the answer to that would have to wait until she woke up again and they could ask more questions.

For now they could do nothing, so after checking with McCoy on her condition, Spock left for the bridge where, as usual, the Captain looked and sounded impatient for answers.

"What's the situation, Spock?"

"The life-form is a child, age and race unknown." Spock intoned. "She is dehydrated and has a high fever. Doctor McCoy is treating her and she awoke briefly a few moments ago, on which we have found she is able to speak English. We do not have any further information on her as of yet. I shall find out more when she wakes up again."

"Hopefully we'll get more answers then." Kirk mused, drilling his fingers on the side of his chair. "We need to find out exactly what she was doing there."

Spock made his way to the science station, relieving the temporary crewman assigned there whilst he had been on the planet, pondering that himself.

Aura drowsily opened her eyes, wondering if the human and his device had been part of some sort of bizarre dream. However, when she saw her surroundings, so very different from those of the planet she had just been on and so very similar to what she had seen before, she knew that it hadn't been a dream.

Humans had come to her rescue and she was certainly feeling none the worse for wear.

Aura looked around for the human, slowly turning her head from one side to the other - she didn't want him coming back to put her to sleep again, even as comfortable as that sleep had been and she also didn't want to be barked at for moving around.

She found him standing somewhere around her feet, either unaware she was awake or didn't particularly care that she was no longer asleep.

"Who are you?"

He snapped around when Aura spoke and after regaining his composure came around the bed to her side.

Aura tried to push herself up into a sitting position. The human frowned until he realized she wasn't trying to get out of the bed, and helped her to sit up.

She asked again.

"I'm Doctor Leonard McCoy." The human answered.

Slightly scared, though also reassured at knowing he was a doctor and grateful to have a name she could call him, Aura asked where she was and he told her she was on the Starship Enterprise.

The name meant nothing to her. "What's a Starship?"

"You don't know what a Starship is? Well..." McCoy scratched his head. "Our mission is to explore the galaxy for new planets and civilizations, and we came to this place and found you. But if you don't know what a Starship is, then obviously you didn't get there in one, and that place couldn't have been your native land, which leaves us in the dark as to how you got there in the first place."

Aura recognised the unspoken question and sighed because this was about the hardest thing to explain to people. They never seemed to understand the concept and sometimes she wondered if she fully understood it herself, and usually the answer she came up with was that she didn't.

"I have a power to move across dimensions," She tried to put it simply. "I got here by using that power. I was in another dimension before, but my power took me here."

McCoy frowned. "How is that even possible? Our transporters certainly can move us across distances, but dimensions?"

Aura's eyes lit up. "You mean you actually know what I'm talking about?"

"Yeah, but I don't understand how a person would be able to do it without technology. Especially technology that even we haven't developed yet. Well..." McCoy trailed off as he was reminded of their encounter with a rather frightening alternate universe and began to dither aloud. "That's not quite true; we've done it before, but..."

Aura could have hugged him. Understanding how she could do it wasn't as important to her as simply understanding that she could and even if he was sceptical, as long as he knew what she was talking about, it didn't matter.

"I just can. I don't know why I can do it, but I just think about being somewhere else and I'm there..." Aura paused. "I've been able to do it for years now."

"Years?"

Aura nodded, knowing he was thinking she was too young, but she had learned to ignore that. "I found it a few years ago, before I left..." She stopped, trying to ignore the hot feeling behind her eyes.

"Left? Left where?"

Aura's chest tightened. "My home..."

"Can't you get back?" McCoy asked, thinking it sounded like she had not left willingly.

Aura shook her head. "I didn't know I could do it when I left, but I don't think I want to go back."

"Why?" McCoy asked.

Aura shook her head. "Bad things happened back home. I lost the people I cared about to a man whose trying to take over our world, and when I found out I could go to other dimensions it just seemed like a good way to escape. It's a lot of fun sometimes, Nobody can tell me what to do, I don't have to go to bed at a certain time. I'm free..." Aura's voice trailed off as she tried to make her situation more light-hearted.

McCoy didn't press any further. "What's your name then, kid?" He finally asked after a long and painful silence.

"Aura. Aura Starfire," Aura answered. "You said you're a doctor. Am I going to be all right?"

"You'll be just fine," McCoy assured her. "You lost a lot of water, though, so I'll need you to stay here until you build it back up." He left her side for a few moments and returned with a tall glass, which he handed to her. "Here."

Aura gratefully took it and gulped it down almost faster than she should have. Her throat was incredibly parched and the water had a slightly sweet taste to it, which made her enjoy it all the more. When she finished it, she looked at him questioningly.

McCoy knew what she was wondering about. "It tastes sweet because there's a sugar-electrolyte mix in the water. When you lose fluid like that, your blood-sugar level also goes down. You lost a lot of energy that way."

"That happens when I teleport too," Aura mused, not sure exactly what a 'sugar electrolyte-mix' was, but guessing from what McCoy had said afterwards that it was meant to give her more energy. "But I felt worse this time. Usually I feel really tired when I arrive somewhere new and need to rest, but I usually stay awake long enough to get somewhere safe first. I felt really bad this time, it was raining in the place I was at before, and when I got here it was really hot and I walked for a while, then..." Aura frowned. "I don't remember what happened after that."

McCoy nodded. "That makes sense, then. Whatever you use to teleport takes energy, so sleep is what you need to recharge." He frowned. "Something funny?"

"Just you saying 'recharged'" Aura grinned.

McCoy grunted. "I have to let Jim know about all this..."

"Jim?"

"Known as Captain Kirk by everyone else on this ship. He's the captain of the Enterprise, the one that tells everyone what to do and where to go."

Aura didn't like the sound of this, since humans in authority tended to be the worst from what she had experienced. "What do you have to tell him?"

"That you're awake."

"I'm that important?"

"You were the only life form on the planet you teleported to. That planet can't support life." McCoy checked a chronometer. "Actually..." He shook his head. 'Nah, can't tell her that yet... I should let Jim tell her' McCoy moved to the nearest comm. panel and contacted the bridge. "Captain, the girl's awake."

Kirk's voice floated down through the comm. "Thanks Bones, I'll be there in a moment."

"Bring Spock, too," McCoy quickly interjected as an afterthought before Kirk could cut the connection. "I think he might be able to make more sense of this situation than we can."

"Why's that, Bones?"

"I just have a hunch," McCoy replied before closing the channel and turning back to Aura's bed.

On the bridge, Kirk shrugged and turned to Spock. "What do you think he means by that?"

"I do not know, Captain. Since the doctor clearly does not approve of my social skills or lack thereof in his eyes, I can only assume that he believes I may be able to play a role that neither you nor he could fulfil."

Kirk shrugged again as he got up and headed for the turbolift with a smile. "If that's the case, maybe he's just looking for someone who's patient."

If he had been human, Spock would have shrugged. "Perhaps. We will know once we are there."

Kirk twisted the turbolift handle and vocally input their destination. "What do you make of her, Spock?"

"She is a child, possessing an appearance and likely a biology similar to that of a Terran fox. However, her body structure is clearly bipedal, rather than quadrupedal. Her appearance could be said to be like that of a fox and a common biped combined." Spock paused. "Obviously her psychological profile is impossible to determine at this time."

"Something else Bones might want you for?" Kirk asked. "Make sure she doesn't have a screw loose or something from being down on that planet by herself?"

Spock raised an eyebrow. "Doctor McCoy has an entire staff of well-trained medics and psychologists at his disposal. He would not ask my assistance in such a matter as that. We will simply have to ask the good doctor what it is he requires of me."

The turbolift door opened and Kirk and Spock made their way to Sickbay.

Authors note: If anybody is interested, a profile of Aura has been added to my profile in case anybody wants more information about her.