After the disappointment of Spock, Nora was hoping that Data was teaching Trek Tech: TNG. After all, he was practically the embodiment of Star Trek technology. She walked briskly, fantasizing.

"Nora, you have surpassed all expectations. In fact, I believe you are qualified to come serve aboard the Enterprise," Data said.

"Oh, thank you, Commander! I'm so honored!" Nora replied, smiling up at him.

"The honor is mine," he said, returning her smile and taking her hands in his. "I also invited you because" He stepped closer. "I have fallen in love with you."

"Oh, Data!" Nora sighed as he bent down to touch her lips with his. She

Nora would have smacked into the doors had they not slid open at her presence. As it was, she tripped over the threshold by stopping so quickly. She caught herself and inspected her surroundings. The room looked exactly like the Engineering set on TNG, and she smiled, feeling like she was on the Enterprise. Turning in a circle, she took in the glowing warp core and blinking panels on the walls. Of course, she didn't know what half the controls did, but that didn't matter. It was like she was standing in the very same room that Starfleet engineers like Data worked.

It always came down to the possibility of a Data sighting, didn't it?

She heard footsteps come up behind her, and she started to turn. But then she rethought—if it were Data, she could say something about how beautiful the warp core was, and then he could respond in his sweet voice, and the he could come up next to her and take her hand and…

The footsteps were coming closer, so Nora cleared her throat quietly in preparation.

"I-it's pretty, i-isn't it?"

Not as confidant as she would have liked, but Data was easygoing about things like that.

"Well, I guess."

Nora started. That certainly was not Data's soft musical voice. She turned around to see…

Geordi LaForge, flanked by two mini-Gorn. He gave her a confused look. "You must've figured out how to navigate the halls."

Nora nodded, mentally smacking herself. Of course the chief engineer would teach a class about technology!

"I didn't think anyone was supposed to tell the fanstudents," Geordi said. He looked towards the door, where other students were coming in, and walked over to the center of the room. "Computer, create classroom setting LaForge-Alpha."

A teacher's desk with a console and a classroom set of chairs and desks appeared.

"Take a seat, everyone, and get out your data padds," Geordi said.

That explained why it looked like Engineering—the room was a holodeck. The students sat down obediently and picked up their padds.

Geordi tapped at his console, and a document popped up on Nora's screen (and, she assumed, everyone else's). "Just a little legality we have to take care of. By clicking the 'I agree' box at the bottom of this document, you verify that you won't use any of the knowledge you learn in Trek Tech classes to pollute the timeline. You will only use it to make your fanfiction more realistic. If you don't agree, you can't take this class, you won't graduate OFAS, and you'll never be able to write fanfiction again."

With that threat hanging above their heads, everyone immediately rushed to scroll down and click the box. Had Nora read the document, she would have noticed the phrases "We are not responsible for any injuries caused by stampedes", "We have the right to assign any punishment we deem necessary", and "We have the right to deny medical treatment in cases of stupidity". As such, when Nora looked up and noticed that Geordi had an amused grin on his face, as if he'd just played a prank on them, she wondered why.

"All right," he said, and tapped on his console again. The document disappeared, leaving a blank screen that said "Basics of Technology" on it. Nora positioned her fingers over the keyboard, ready to take notes.

"So, does everyone know what this is?" He pointed to the tall glowing column.

"The warp core," the class chorused.

The engineer looked visibly relieved. "Good. You should know it powers the nacelles, which create a warp field around the ship that moves the ship through space faster than light."

"And each of the warp speeds have numbers, and higher numbers mean more speed. Like Warp 15 is really really fast!" a girl said. Her uniform was a TOS gold miniskirt with the purple Voyager collar, and there was something faintly reptilian about her appearance. She seemed oblivious to her error.

"There's no such thing as Warp 15, Miss—"

"Zenara," she supplied.

"Zenara," Geordi continued patiently, "Maximum warp for this Enterprise is Warp 9.9. The engineer from Voyager told me that they once tried to break the Warp 10 barrier. But she also said that it didn't really work."

Zenara looked disappointed.

"All right, the power for the core comes from a matter/antimatter reaction, regulated by—" He slid open a compartment on the warp core and took out a pretty red rock "—dilithium crystals like this one."

Nora typed "matter/antimatter + dilithium crystals = warp core".

"Now, antimatter is exactly what it sounds like—anti-matter, against matter. The antimatter containment field is arguably the most important part of the ship, because if we lose containment, matter and antimatter will annihilate each other."

Nora typed "matter + antimatter = explosion".

"Any questions?"

Nora didn't have any about the class, but while she could ask Data's best friend questions…

She raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss-"

"Greyson. Nora Greyson," she said. "Could you introduce me to Data? I mean, I'd like to meet him, and you're his friend, right?"

He narrowed his eyes at her—or rather, as his eyes were obscured by the VISOR, drew his eyebrows together in a suspicious expression.

"You're a Data Desirer, aren't you?"

He said "Data Desirer" in the same tone of voice as Kenny Lin had—as if it was something bad. "Yes. Why does that matter?"

"It matters because I don't inflict fangirls on my friends. I actually like my friends."

"Ooh, you like Data?" a girl in the back of the class said.

Geordi sighed. "Not like that. Do you fanbrats always have your minds in the gutter?"

The girl looked sheepish.

"I don't," Nora said. "I won't stampede Data or anything! I just want to meet him!"

"No," Geordi said firmly. "Any other questions?"

The girl from the back row raised her hand again. "If you won't introduce her to Data, will you introduce me?"

Geordi sighed again. "No. Any questions not pertaining to Data?"

All other hands went down, except for one—one raised by the tall skinny boy with wings.

"Yes, Mr. Deltic?" Geordi said.

"I'd just like to point out that warp drive isn't the most efficient method of faster-than-light travel. Hyperdrive is basically hopping into another dimension—"

"Mr. Deltic, I read your application. All the teachers had to. And while you might cross between universes, at this academy, we're sticking to Star Trek. There will be a lecture sometime this year you'll want to attend. Crossovers, I think it's called."

"There's nothing wrong with crossing over, especially if the technology works better," Ajax asserted. "I own a ship called the Phoenix—"

"I don't care," Geordi snapped. "We don't teach it here. Sorry."

Anyone who knew anything about Geordi's character knew he didn't usually snap at people, so most of the students were a bit cowed by the fact that he had—sort of—lost his temper. Nora, in particular, felt bad. Ajax may have ended it, but she'd started it.

And, come to think of it, her confusion earlier probably hadn't made Geordi like the students. How embarrassing.

If this was how bad the second class was, Nora was scared for the rest of her day.


A/N I am never going to guarantee updates again. That said, I hope—nope, not going to tempt the Ironic Overpower/get anyone's hopes up.

Lily and Cyba, the next chapter will be longer. The next two chapters will finish off the first day. (I'm such a slow writer.)

Thanks to Hideout Writer and Wikipedia for help with treknobabble.