Beaming was strange. It didn't hurt. It sort of…tickled. I felt every cell in my body tingle for a moment. When I opened my eyes again, they were dazzled by the sight. It was definitely a different planet. The air felt a bit thicker than normal and my breath caught in my throat, but soon I was getting used to it. What really got me buzzing, though, was the composition of the planet's surface. Diamonds.

"Come along, Sputnik," Spock said.

Scotty and I followed him without really seeing where we were going. We couldn't tear our eyes away from the beautiful diamonds all around us. That is, until we saw the building we were walking toward. It looked like it had been carved right out of a diamond mountain. The day time star, which seemed farther away than the sun is from Earth, was shining on the curves of the building, glinting off of every corner. It was captivating.

We had arrived at the door of the palace. It swung open to admit us in and we stepped inside. The entrance hall was tall like a cathedral, and my gaze traveled upward, resting on the pinnacle of the ceiling. However, it was when I looked back down that I was really surprised. I had seen aliens before in my travels with the Doctor, but these were the coolest I had seen yet. They were humanoid in structure, but they had something like scales that came from the back of their heads and faded into human skin at the face. Their hands also had this same pattern, the scales coming from the wrist. The rest of their bodies were covered by clothing, but I guessed them to be similar.

"Bienvenue à Conran Zeta," one of the females said, dipping into a bow.

I stood mesmerized by her until I felt the eyes of my companions on me, waiting for me to interpret.

"What, you guys don't even know what that means?" I asked, almost laughingly.

Spock shook his head and Scotty turned to me, scratching his neck.

"No, sorreh. There hasn't been a need to learn French for at least one hundred and fifty years," the chief engineer explained.

I was shocked. No French in the future? Of course this was an alternate reality, one in which fiction was true. So nothing could be sure for the future of my universe. Still, it bothered me.

Looking back at the alien girl, I made the translation. "She said, 'Welcome to Conran Zeta', a simple greeting."

Spock bowed in response. "Thank you for your reception of our distress signal. We are here to make the negotiations."

He looked at me, waiting for the words to come out. With his eyes staring through me and my limited knowledge of the language, I paused and stood a moment, trying to process the words in my head.

"Merci pour nous aidant. Nous sommes ici pour parler des conditions."

It wasn't a literal translation, but it was close enough. As long as the general intent was conveyed, it would be fine…right?

I could feel the sweat pooling above my eyebrows. This was proving to be more stressful than I originally thought.

"Nous sommes heureux de vous recevoir," the alien girl said with another bow.

A confused look crossed my face. I had trouble understanding the inversion, but tried my best to make sense of it.

"They're happy about…receiving? I'm not sure."

Spock nodded, addressing me without looking away from the group of aliens. "Introduce us and ask about the materials."

"Je m'appelle Sputnik," I said, laying a hand on my chest. Then I indicated the men beside me. "Ils s'appellent Spock et Scotty." I stopped and made a polite smile. "Où se trouve les…" searching, searching, "…matieres?"

The aliens looked at me with cocked heads. I knew that was wrong.

"Materials," I said. "Matériaux?" I was running out of ideas.

Either they got the idea or I finally found the right word. I still have no clue. The important thing is we were whisked off to another room and shown a collection of machines and raw materials. Scotty could barely contain himself.

"Look a' that, would yeh? Everything one could ever need. A spectral rondometer, a serial timespan converter—those are handy actualleh—and look there! That's the material we need."

The engineer hopped over to the stuff, looking it over almost lovingly. It was quite entertaining, really.

"Vous pouvez avoir les matériaux si vous nous donnez quelques choses."

I turned around to find the girl talking to me again. She seemed to be bypassing Spock, who was supposed to be in charge of this mission, and addressing me directly. Still, I held to my assignment and gave Spock the translation.

"She said we can have the stuff if we give them something."

"Very well. What is it they want?"

I asked the question of the girl.

"We need medicine for our sick," she told me. "They are dying."

I wasn't sure if the translation matrix had kicked back into gear or if my understanding was picking up again after using it for a while. It was nice, though. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard after all.

"What kind of medicine?" Spock asked after I gave him her response.

"We don't know. The disease they have is different from anything we have seen before. We need your medical personnel to help us."

I knew right away that Bones needed to get down here. I reached for my communicator before telling Spock what was going on.

"Sputnik to Enterprise, acknowledge."

"This is the Enterprise. Go ahead Sputnik."

"We need Doctor McCoy and a team of his men down here."

"Is someone injured?"

"No. The inhabitants have requested the help of our medical team. They have some sick people and need help."

I could feel Spock's eyes drilling into me and I knew I would pay for not informing him first.

"Doctor McCoy is on his way."

"Le medicin vient," I told the girl.

She nodded and said something to her companions. As she did I turned to Spock.

"Sorry, sir. I just wanted-"

"That does not change the fact that you have violated the linguist-officer code. We will discuss this with the Captain when we return to the ship."

With that, he dropped the subject. Soon, Bones and his team arrived with all their medical equipment. I heard the alien girl tell her companions to take them to the sick bay. Spock went with them, leaving me alone with her and Scotty, who was scouring the room for any materials we might need with one of the scaly creatures who I assumed was Scotty's equivalent here.

"The Spock. He is your mate?"

I turned to the girl and let out a nervous laugh. "No. He is not."

"But you want him to be?"

I shook my head. "No. Well, maybe. You see, I'm not from around here so it would be a bit difficult. Besides, there's another man out there." I felt my eyes turn dreamily to the ceiling. "He's a wonderful man, a man I've been traveling with for a while now. I'm not actually supposed to be here. I belong with him."

She nodded, sitting on a palette near to Scotty and his new friend. She smiled at them, babbling on in their respective languages, neither understanding the other, yet somehow expressing meaning. Then she turned to me, gesturing for me to sit beside her.

"My name is Xorthen, daughter of Jahal. We are the Zetanoid. I must say we don't know much about your species. You are intriguing people."

After taking a seat, I searched my memory for the words to make my response.

"We are humans, from planet Earth. Well, most of us anyway. There are many who are different, like Spock. He is a Vulcan, but that's just one of the many species that are on our ship."

Xorthen smiled. "A mix of races. How modern."

I chuckled. "Yes, well…"

As the words left my mouth, Spock entered the room.

"Mister Scott, have you gathered all the data you require?"

Scotty looked up from his bantering with the other Zetanoid.

"Aye, sir. Just havin' a nice row with this guy, 'ere."

"Good." Spock looked over at me and Xorthen. "Ensign, we have been ordered back aboard the Enterprise. Doctor McCoy believes this might take a while. Prepare to leave."

"Well, I guess that means I have to go," I said to Xorthen before standing. "It was nice meeting you. Maybe we can talk again when I come back."

Xorthen bowed, and I responded in kind.

"I hope we can learn from each other when you return," she said as I backed away.

"Me too."

Scotty and I joined Spock, who was calling the ship to beam us up again.

"Ready to beam up, Commander."

"Energize."