Chapter 12
by Starsinger
I forgot something, I'm sorry. Don't own them.
A distinct noise came from the base of Jim's column. No one currently occupied the area of Engineering that housed Jim's shell, and he wasn't sure what was going on. He turned his attention to the intruder and heard a distinctive barking noise.
Jim was confused, Daniel had left with the President and his entourage earlier that day. Jim even went back and checked the transport logs only discover that one of the transporters had activated, all by itself, half an hour ago. Finally, Jim shimmered into existence in front of a small Beagle with very peculiar ears. He was even wagging his tail at the holographic image. "Ruff?" he seemed to ask.
"Uh, Scotty, Gary, can you join me in Engineering? And I mean that literally," Jim commed them. He heard the grumbling along the ship's circuits. Jim dropped to one knee as the little animal sat. "I wish I could touch you, boy," he told the animal. The ship was currently heading out of the solar system after dropping off their passengers, both precious and pretentious, on Earth. Word had come through an hour earlier that both Charlie and Lily had survived their operations and were safely at home in their shells.
"Jim, just because you don't require sleep doesn't mean the rest of us don't," Gary grumbled coming into Sickbay wearing his pajamas. Scotty walked in moments later with similar sentiments.
"We have a visitor," Jim told them.
"A dog?" Gary asked blearily.
"Porthos!" Scotty announced. The pooch ran over to the suddenly crouching engineer and started licking his face. "How di' ye get here?"
"Porthos?" both Jim and Gary asked simultaneously.
"Admiral Archer's dog! The one tha' got me sent to Delta Vega!" Scotty announced. "He's back!"
"Uhm, Scotty, there's a puddle on the floor," Gary told him. Scotty had the decency to look embarrassed. "Jim."
"I've contacted Jon and told him that we're turning around and why. We'll be back at Earth in about twenty minutes," Jim told them. "I'll meet him in the transporter room."
"What exactly did you tell him?" Gary asked.
"That something unexpected occurred, and that we're returning to hand that something over to him and him alone," Jim told him.
"I hope this doesn't give the old boy a heart attack," Gary muttered. "We'll be in the rec room."
"Ruff?" Porthos asked.
"Come on, boy, let's go wait for your Master," Gary told him. Porthos and Scotty both trotted after him.
Jonathan Archer appeared, unhappily, on the transporter pad where Jim met him. The transporter tech straightened to attention at his appearance. "Jim, I hope this is important. I'm not as young as I used to be."
"According to Mom you never were," Jim said with a laugh. Archer's mouth opened, then considered the woman who was Winona Kirk, and started laughing. Jim lead him up three decks and to the rec room.
Archer came to an abrupt halt as he beheld the animal in Scotty's lap. The Beagle scrambled out of the Engineer's lap and hurried over to his master. He sat up with his front legs in the air. Archer dropped to his knees, ignoring the creaking joints and wrapped his arms around his old friend. "How?" he finally asked.
"There was an unexpected activation of the transporter earlier tonight, and then I heard him barking at my column," Jim told him. "Scotty confirmed his identity, so we turned around and brought him back."
"Thank you, all of you, so much," Archer told them. He had one parting shot just before he beamed back to Earth, "Stay away from my dog, Mr. Scott!"