A Science Strange and Lovely
A/N: Since this is AU, time has been extended in comparison to the film as to let Natalie interact with her fellow crew members and further develop her story. I hope you don't mind.
*The original dialogue has been changed, as I can't find a script or video clip of certain scenes*
Now it is important to note that Natalie Parker was not a nosy sort of woman, however when such a situation presented itself, she was incapable of turning her ear away from a flow of delicious intrigue.
As soon as the she and Carol left their quarters in their matching uniforms, the latter had insisted upon getting a look at the lower engineering deck. Natalie could only stand and stare as the blonde analyzed every gear and gadget, speaking animatedly to fellow officers. As she gazed around the bustling deck, Natalie realized that she could only name about two of the many devices humming and whirring a symphony of white noise.
Rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, she began to feel quite out of place amongst the machines and their sharp-minded engineers. Just as she was going to look for Carol, she heard two voices rise above the din.
Peering around the corner of the wall against which she leaned, she saw Captain Kirk standing beside a shorter man in a red uniform. Kirk's blue eyes were narrowed and his stance tense while the other man seemed flustered, his brows furrowing. Natalie couldn't make out what the two were saying amongst the many noises on the deck, but they were obviously at odds about some matter. Craning her neck a few inches more and turning her eager ear, she could make out the words "photon torpedoes" and "Section 31". Remembering that Carol was insistent on finding out more about the weapons, Natalie took several steps forward as to hear more.
"They didn't tell me what the bloody thing were fueled by, Jim. We can't possibly risk firing unknown weapons around warp core. It could blow us all up for God's sake! Do you realize that?" * the shorter man exclaimed, heat rising to his round face. Kirk seemed unshaken by the man's pleading, Natalie noted, his jaw set stubbornly and his arms crossed against his chest. Natalie knew that face well. It was the same face she adopted when a volunteer at the hospital tried to give her orders.
"Scotty, you need to load the torpedoes," Kirk insisted, his eyes flaring with the light of his personal vendetta against Harrison. Natalie knew that look as well. The other man, Scotty, looked conflicted glancing at Kirk and running a hand through his thin hair.
"If you are going to use them," he started hesitantly, "then I'm leaving."
The Captain seemed on the verge of a doubtful laugh, his white teeth flashing a grin, until he saw the grave look upon his companion's face.
"Well, I guess this is it then," he muttered, looking as if a blow had struck him at the center of his proud chest.
"I quit, here's my resignation" Scotty exclaimed, handing Kirk his tablet "and Keenser is coming with me." The small alien engineer next to Scotty simply stared at his friend with little beady black eyes before giving Kirk a nod. The pair then turned their backs on their Captain, but before Scotty could round the corner he stopped and turned back.
"For the love of God, don't use those torpedoes." he pleaded one last time before leaving the deck and its Captain. Kirk stood alone now, rubbing his face with both hands. Natalie thought that now would be the best time to make her exit, shifting back against the wall.
She began walking down the passage that led to her living quarters, her mind still processing what she had heard. Why didn't the engineer want to use the torpedoes? What did Section 31 have to do with anything? Why didn't Kirk listen when he learned that whatever he was going to do was going to put the crew's lives at stake? She needed to find Carol and soon.
"Nurse Wallace!" a voice called, shaking Natalie from her thoughts. She turned her head over her shoulder to see Dr. McCoy walking toward her and felt relieved to see someone with whom she was relatively acquainted.
"Hello Doctor," she greeted with a smile that he warmly returned, "we should be taking off soon, right?"
"Shortly, I suppose," he agreed walking next to her, "I wanted to show you the Med Bay, if you have time." Her eyes lit up at the prospect of seeing the Enterprise's medical center, getting to look at all the new equipment and hearing more of the doctor's stories.
"That's what I'm here for Doctor," she responded brightly, pulling her braid over her shoulder. He grinned in response, putting a hand on her back and leading her down another passage. It was like a labyrinth, Natalie mused, trying to make footnotes in her mind of all the points they passed, but gave up on the fifth turn.
"I've never been in a spacecraft, you know," she confessed, tugging on the blonde strands near her shoulder.
"I can tell," said McCoy with a chuckle, "good thing a map of the ship was sent to all new crew members' tablets." Natalie nodded, for as they navigated the decks she wondered how she'd find her quarters again, or anywhere for that matter.
"How does being in a Starfleet uniform feel though, Nurse Wallace?" he questioned impishly, eyeing her slim form next to she wasn't as stunning as her cousin, he thought, the girl was rather pretty in her own way.
"To be honest, Doctor, it's not too comfortable," she replied tugging at the hem of her short dress completely oblivious to his mild flirtations, "but I'm happy to be onboard."
They made on last turn before approaching the entrance to the sick bay, the faint smell of sterilization and medicines wafting through the halls.
"It gets old after awhile" he replied a bit cantankerously, "but I suppose it has it's charms. Commander Spock not being one of them. How is your cousin doing?"
"My cousin? Oh r-right, Carol," Natalie stammered, momentarily forgetting her cover, "she's fine, a little excited when she saw your engineering deck. I think she's more experienced with all this stuff than I am."
The doctor led her into the sickbay, two glass doors sliding open to reveal a large center with a line of patient beds, a well-stocked lab, and a control unit. It looked a lot like St. Elijah's, only as part of a spacecraft. Natalie ran her fingers across a shelf of different liquids stored in pristine glass containers. She could name most of them, the bright red ones and the milky blue ones alike, but there were some that she didn't recognize even after seven years of schooling.
"Ah, you've found the vials," Dr. McCoy asserted, leaning over the woman's shoulder to tap a tube of pale gold liquid, "do you know what that one is?"
Natalie wracked her brain trying to remember if she'd seen in before during one of her classes or at Royal Children's, but she was certain she'd never seen it before.
"I guess I fail my first test Doctor," she said shaking her heat, her white cheeks becoming flushed with embarrassment, "I have no clue."
"That's alright, Nurse Wallace,I should have started with an easier one" the doctor replied gently, removing the vial from its case, "you haven't done field-work or government business, so you wouldn't recognize this stuff. It's called desegrinine, a Cardassian drug used to reverse memory-loss. Powerful stuff, works in under an hour. Let's try another one."
Natalie added the new drug to her mental catalog of medicines, before continuing with the doctor's test. Next he pointed to a clear liquid with a bluish tint. Natalie recognized it immediately.
"That's Trianoline, Doctor, used to heal percussive injuries. Way too easy," she answered playfully, crossing her arms and staring up at him with raised brows.
"Okay, okay," he replied holding out his hands in mock-defense, "too easy, huh? Let's go to the lab then. We can compare testing skills. You might not be smiling for long."
"I'll always be smiling, Dr. McCoy," Natalie responded with a grin,following the man into the lab with a confident sway of her hips. Testing was one of her specialties, known performing complete research projects in a single work day. Half-an-hour passed like this, with casual competition and light teasing, until Natalie remembered she had to speak to Carol.
"I have to go, Doctor, Carol's probably looking for me," she explained, taking her gloves off and pushing her thick braid back over her shoulder.
"Do you know how to get back?" he asked, leading her out of the lab. She gave him a tentative smile that translated as 'I'm completely lost here', wringing her hands at her waist.
"Come on then," Dr. McCoy said with a sigh, placing a hand on her shoulder and guiding her out of the medbay and down the winding halls once again.
"Natalie! Where have you been?" Carol exclaimed, pacing across the engineering deck with a hand on her hip. Natalie watched as Dr. McCoy's eyes drifted down to Carol's long legs, before giving him a discreet nudge in the ribs with her elbow.
"Er, with me," he answered, his eyes still glued to Carol's skirt,"I was showing her the sickbay. You know where to go from here, Nurse Wallace?"
Natalie sighed with a faint laugh shaking her head, "I'm fine, Doctor, see you later." As he walked off, she saw him cast one more look over his shoulder at her blonde friend before disappearing into a elevator.
"Making friends?" Carol asked, raising one gold brow. Natalie just smiled in response.
"Well, I haven't," she continued, walking back to their quarters, "we need to talk." Natalie nodded, remembering the discussion she had overheard that morning. The women walked in silence until they reached their room, Natalie struggling to match Carol's quick pace. Once Natalie had shut the door, the other woman let out a frustrated groan, dropping down onto her bunk.
"He knows," she muttered, glancing up at Natalie with her bright blue eyes, "Officer Spock. He just found me in engineering and knows everything, my name, your name, everything. Except for why we're here. I'm not sure if he'll tell Captain Kirk. I practically begged him not to. Not like that matters." She buried her face into her pillow and let out another sigh.
"Well, it's not like they have the time to send us back now," Natalie reasoned, perching on the side of her bunk and crossing her ankles, "They already went into warp drive about an hour ago. We've come so far."
Carol emerged from her blankets and pillows, leaning back against the headboard.
"I guess you're right, we'll just have to lay low for a while. I didn't get that great a look on the torpedoes before Spock stopped me. There's something off about them though. I can't place it, but their not your everyday missiles."
"Oh, that's what I needed to tell you!" Natalie exclaimed, "I overheard Captain Kirk talking to some engineer about the torpedoes. The man said that they could be-"
Suddenly the ship lurched with a strong velocity, causing both women to fall unto the floor as a deafening clamor overcame the ship. Then all was still as the ship let out a final soft groan. Natalie lifted her head from the ground, struggling to sit upright. She raised a hand to her forehead, feeling the tender skin there that was soon to bruise.
"Was that supposed to happen?" she asked with a hiss of pain, easing herself into an upright position.
"I seriously doubt it," Carol responded, yanking off her black boots and rubbing her ankles, "we've fallen out of warp."
"I'm going to see what happened," Natalie suggested, walking out of the room and putting her hands to her ears as the sirens screamed. Amongst the crowd of engineers swarming the main deck, she saw a familiar head of neatly combed brown hair making his way to the main command deck.
"Doctor!" she yelled, running to catch his arm, "Doctor, what happened?" He turned to face her anxiously peering over her shoulder to where the engineers bustled about, and at a young man with curly hair pulling levers and frantically pushing buttons on a large console.
"Chekov said it has something to do with a coolant leak," he explained, motioning toward the young man, "we're still twenty minutes away from Kronos."
"What are we going to do then?" she asked, looking anxiously into the man's eyes and clutching his arm.
"We, Nurse Wallace, aren't going to do anything. The Captain, Spock, and Lieutenant Uhura are going to Kronos on a confiscated trading ship. We just have to sit pretty. He left Sulu in charge which I just don't get, and I'm doing absolutely nothing," the doctor concluded his tirade with a sigh, his jaw set in agitation.
"Have they left yet?" Natalie questioned, pulling a curl behind her ear.
"They're boarding now."
"We could go with them," she suggested, biting her lip and lowering her eyes so that he wouldn't see the eager hope that glowed beneath the fringe of her lashes. Dr. McCoy simply scoffed, giving her a patronizing smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Because that would make so much sense. The three most important people on the crew go along with a teenage nurse that doesn't even know how to get back to her own quarters!" he exclaimed, his voice tinged with bitter sarcasm. Natalie bit back a heated retort, realizing that it was the doctor's own irritability which caused him to lash out at others. The doctor sighed, glancing down at the young woman he barely knew waiting for her to give him a list of reasons why she should be taken seriously and why he was a jerk. She surprising didn't and he liked her all the more for it.
"Look," he started, contemplating whether he should make the offer, "do you want to see the main deck? You'll see where everything happens on board the Enterprise and get a look at Kronos. It might make you feel one step closer to catching Harrison."
"I'd like that very much, thank you," Natalie responded, letting the doctor guide her into an elevator. One step closer was all she needed.
John Harrison did not plan on sleeping that evening, then again, he rarely did. He was a man who fought the occasional urge to rest his mind with a tenacity unseen in many others. There was a vengeful crew out for his blood, he was the only one of his kind awake, and he couldn't stop staring at the stupid fraying ribbon round his wrist. As you can see, his condition was not one that promised a good night's rest. Against all odds however, his eyelids fell as his head leaned back against a pillar of stone. It was then, only then, that she came to him once more.
"You have a funny face, do you know that?" she asked in her native tongue, tilting her head like she often did, biting that full lower lip he longed to catch with his. Instead he refused to meet her curious doe eyes, instead staring into the warm hearth that crackled and hissed before his eyes. He chose not to notice how the fire illuminated her white collarbone and slender neck, turning the skin near gold and shimmering.
"As do you," he responded , his deep baritone holding the same richness as the dark mocha cocoa in her hands. It wasn't a bluff either. The girl had a face that was too soft, eyes that were too large, and a nose that was too rounded.
"It isn't handsome face," she mused this time in English, leaving her large plush armchair to sit at his feet, "but I quite like you."
"Nor is your's pretty," he retorted, his eyes still locked on the flames that licked the withering logs and danced above the embers.
"But do you like me?" The girl softly asked with a tender smile, giving him a cautious glance before leaning her forehead against his leg right below his knee. His eyes widened under the shadow of the fire, his hand hovering just above the honey curls of her head. Just as his fingertips were about to graze the fine tendrils at the crown of her head, his hand dropped and he pushed her aside.
He hadn't said anything that night. Oh, how he wished he did.
A/N: Thank you for sticking with me despite my irregular updates. I know this was probably a boring filler chapter for you, but it was needed. Hope you enjoyed it anyway!