Chapter 10: Intruder

Erica took a deep breath when she materialized- sometimes transporting really took it out of her.

And promptly shuddered and gasped as she inhaled a mouthful of warp core coolant. She must have beamed into one of the warp core coolant conduits!

A current took her and she floated into a clear, translucent tube. She saw Scotty and Kirk looking around, trying to find her. Bracing herself against the walls of the tube with her feet, she furiously banged on the glass with her fists. She really hoped Kirk and Scotty could get her out before she ran out of air…

The two ran along as the current swept her along. She desperately tried to stop her progress, because she knew the layout of a warp core like the back of her hand. Eventually, the conduit would lead to a turbine with very sharp blades, which would make mincemeat of Erica. She would really prefer to avoid that.

Scotty materialized in Engineering with Kirk. After making sure he was in one piece, he looked around, trying to find Erica. He didn't know why, but there was something about the girl he liked.

Then, he heard a faint banging coming from behind him. He wheeled around to find Erica trapped inside an active warp core coolant conduit, eyes wide with fear. He tapped Kirk on the shoulder. The two men looked at each other.

Kirk blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "We've got to get her out!"

"How?"

"You're the engineer, you figure it out!"

"This isn't a matter of just flipping the right switch and having her pop out of the conduit! The ship happens to be at warp- if we do the wrong thing we could break the warp drive!"

"Well, what's the right thing?"

"MMFF!" They looked up to find Erica passing through a tube leading to a turbine with lethal-looking blades. Scotty noticed her face getting rather… purple?

"She's running out of air!" Aware that he was on a clock, Scotty closed his eyes, trying to think.

"Okay, okay. Eventually, she'll pass over the main access ports. Ordinarily those don't open, but if we can force a manual override the computer will think the warp core is going to freeze and cut the coolant flow-"

Kirk shook his head- between Scotty's accent and Kirk's total lack of engineering knowledge, he couldn't understand a word. "Speak English!"

Scotty glared. "I am!"

"Dumb people English!"

Scotty sighed and looked at Kirk with an exasperated expression on his face. "That panel, hack into main turbine control, push big red button when I tell you to."

Kirk looked at Scotty like he was insulting his intelligence, but did as he was told. "What will you do?"

"Catch her!"

Erica felt herself getting faint. Below her, all she saw was Kirk and Scotty arguing. Couldn't they do something useful, like hurry up and get her out?

Suddenly, a hatch in the bottom of the tube opened, and she fell out with a rush of liquid. Her glasses fell off, and the landing knocked the wind out of her. Spluttering, she scrabbled around for her glasses, only to freeze as a pair of warm hands slipped her glasses back on her face. As her vision came into focus, she blushed. She'd landed right on top of Scotty. He grinned up at her. "You alright, Erica?"

She smiled back at him, lost in the moment. "My nose is killing me and I'm soaked, but other than that I'm great."

A coughing noise came from behind them. Erica and Scotty looked at Kirk. "Um, if you two lovebirds could save the PDA for later, we've got a Federation to save." Erica immediately blushed- she hadn't realized the ahm… awkwardness of their position. She rolled off Scotty, who helped her up. Scotty was also blushing.

They ran up the stairs leading to the bridge, only to find a security team advancing on them. They wheeled the other way, only to find another security team, led by Cadet Cupcake Hendorff.

"Halt! Come with me, cupcake!"

Timidly, Erica piped up. "Um, sir, it takes one to know one." Then she belatedly realized Hendorff was much, much bigger than her. And gulped.

Uh-oh.