A/N: Thank you all for reading/reviewing/favoriting so far! RL has settled down now, so I will be responding individually again.

Chapter Nine.

Doctor McCoy stood up, knocked his chair over, and headed straight for Kathryn. "Shhhh, shhh, it's all right," he comforted, rubbing her shoulders. "Just hold on to the good memories. Here, take deep breathes." He shook his head, wondering about this strange girl.

Another awkward silence settled over the room, broken only by muffled sobs. Finally, the comm whirled. "Bridge to Captain Kirk," Sulu's voice crackled.

Kirk made a beeline for the comm. "Kirk here."

"Your update, sir. Still in unknown territory. Everything is strange. We must presume that wormhole has flung us either farther across the galaxy than anyone else has been before or that we are, sir, in another galaxy."

"Thank you. Kirk out." Kirk slammed his fist down on the comm, frustration written all over his face.

"Fascinating, Captain. It would appear that the old theory concerning wormholes could be true," Spock said, moving over to Kirk, eyebrow quirked.

"Only you could think about something like that at a time like this, Spock!" McCoy exclaimed crossly.

"Thank you, Doctor. I refer, of course to the theory that wormholes such as the one we encountered are, in fact, gateways to other universes."

"Which could explain the differences in the stars!" Kirk's mind was almost visibly turning. "And maybe it could explain Kathryn too!"

"But if it that's true, then we're stuck here, maybe for good!" McCoy pointed out, moving over to Kirk and Spock. "This is nothing like that other time we ended up in another universe*! The whole ship's here!"

Uhura blinked. Things had been happening so fast, she had not really thought about the possibility of being trapped in another universe. The very words conjured up pictures from the ISS Enterprise, which she shied away from.

Kathryn, surprisingly, had got herself under control, (sniffing and hiccup stage, McCoy noted) and now looked thoughtful. Her hands crooked, right above left, and her fingers began to wave in patterns.

"Miss Kathryn, are you playing a phantom Terran harp?" Spock inquired, looking at her hands.

She glanced at him. Her eyes looked almost like she was expecting this question, yet were just a little surprised all the same. "Yes...yes I am, for lack of the real thing. It helps me calm down," she answered. "I believe my harp is in one of the boxes that I presume are in the Transporter Room." She spoke jerkily, her hiccups breaking through at intervals. "There might be some answers for you in those boxes, gentlemen, and Ms. Uhura, though," a twinkle came back to her eyes, "I'm not quite sure if they will answer all the questions brought up by them!" She giggled a bit through her tears. "And if they are bigger on the inside...!**" she whispered, heard only by Spock.

Kirk reflected that Spock's eyebrows must be getting quite a workout today as they once again flew up to his bangs.

"Miss Kathryn, did you just say that your boxes could be "bigger on the inside"?" he asked.

Her face wrinkled in consternation, but with the twinkle and the tears, the effect was comical. "Oh dear. Yes, I did, but I can't explain it without showing you the boxes. It's a sort of high-tech technology that the Time—er, the Esterants made. Look, why don't you go through my boxes?" she asked. "At this point, anything I say will just raise more questions."

Kirk walked over to Kathryn. He paused, unsure what to say. "Kathryn..."

"I know. You don't have any proof of anything. How can you be sure what I'm saying is the truth? For all you know, I'm some freaky alien—please, no offense, Mr. Spock—who's trying to take over the ship!" Kathryn said, hopelessness creeping into her voice and eyes. "I don't know what to do either."

She abruptly stood up and, clutching the table, made her way over to the seat which her cloak was tossed over. She grabbed it and huddled it around herself, looking very lost.

TOS-TOS-TOS

Kirk walked after Kathryn. "Kathryn, we will try to believe you," he said, pulling a chair over and sitting down in from of her. "Can you tell us anything else?"

She looked at him. "I don't know. I honestly don't have the understanding or the knowledge needed to explain the science behind the Esterants, the wormholes or transporter beams. I only have some theories. Do you want me to give you those?"

Kirk nodded. "Go ahead, if you think it will help." He gave her a little smile, trying to put her more at ease.

"I think a temporal disturbance tossed me into this universe, and I think the wormhole pulled you into it," Kathryn said. "I'm almost sure it was a temporal disturbance that brought me to the Esterants' planet, and that would be the only explanation for the change in the stars."

"Temporal disturbance? Like a rip through time and space? I thought those things were fairy tales!" McCoy exclaimed.

"Fairy tales have to start someplace. My family's farm has—had an odd history of disappearances and strange things happening on it—two disappearances and any number of stories dating back a hundred years and more," Kathryn smiled faintly. "My family thought the stories were great fun," she added wistfully. "I often wished that I could find one of them to be true. Not like this, though!"

"A temporal disturbance is possible, Captain," Spock said. "I have reason to believe that the Guardian* was one such disturbance, carefully controlled. However, I have not heard any theories about temporal disturbances being able to facilitate travel between universes as well as travel between times and places. It would be a most fascinating subject."

"Wall, I don't know about the rest of you, but it's just about time for lunch, and I'm mighty hungry. I'm sure you are too, Kathryn. Why don't we continue this discussion over some food?" McCoy asked, deciding that it was high time they all got out of there.

"Good idea, Bones. Kathryn?" Kirk asked.

"That's fine with me, Captain," she answered. "In fact, I'm quite hungry."

"Considering that you said you haven't eaten in two years I expect you would be," McCoy pointed out dryly.

Kathryn turned bright pink as everyone's eyes flicked towards her. "Well, you see, Be'thul took care of that somehow—I don't know how she did it, but I didn't need to eat there. I know it sounds fantastic, but honestly, what part of my story doesn't?"

"Right. Bones, take Kathryn down to Officer's Mess. Mr. Spock and I will join you shortly. Lieutenant Uhura, you may go," Kirk said, deciding that he had to salvage the situation somehow.

"Aye, aye, sir," Uhura answered, slipping out of the room.

"Well, Kathryn?" McCoy asked, offering her his arm.

She slipped her hand through with a smile, and they walked out of the room. Spock caught the tail end of McCoy's question "...how did you manage it?" and Kirk was slightly amused to see him quirk his eyebrow once more.

"Mr. Spock, let's head to the Bridge to check in on things, then head down for lunch as well," he said, moving towards the door.

*Mirror, Mirror reference.

**reference to another sci-fi show. Do you know what it is? :)