A/N: Thank you guys for all the reviews and faves and follows! This story was A LOT more successful then I ever thought it would be like you really don't know! But I am glad with how this entire story turned out, and is turning out! And that's all thanks to you all who keep me wanting to write more of A Relentless Pursuit!

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek. I do not claim to. I only own my OC Farrah! :)


Delta Vega, several months ago.

"Is that a Tribble on your desk?"

"What, that thing?" Scotty asked looked at the small living fur ball in its small cage, which was actually meant for a bird, but it was all he had in this wasteland he called home, well temporary home if he had anything to say about it. Which he didn't, but he tended not to dwell on that... "To be honest, I don't know what it is. Bought it off a particularly shady trader by the name of Jones. Been meaning to send it back to my nephew at the academy," Scotty explained to the two men behind him, he'd already told Keenser all about it, "Its the ideal pet! Doesn't eat, doesn't make a mess. Just sits there and makes a very relaxing purring sound," He would know, he'd fallen asleep to it many a time.

"It doesn't eat…?" One of the men asked, "...and it hasn't...replicated?"

"'Course not! What's it gonna replicate with? I can't speak for Keenser here," Scotty said looking down at the green alien beside him, "But I've never been quite that lonely out here," Scotty replied looking over at him, then looking back at the creature, "Is something wrong? You seem awfully concerned about one little ball of fur."

"Fascinating..." The man said looking at the creature.

"Mr. Scott, you wanted to show us this 'transwarp beaming' idea of yours?" The second man asked him.

"Aye, follow me! And don't worry about that fur ball, Mr. Sponk-" Scotty said speaking to the older man, but being interrupted.

"Spock," The older man corrected him.

"-Mr. Spock. I can't imagine he'll get into too much trouble," Scotty corrected himself as they walked away from the small creature and further into the compound.


The USS Enterprise. Now.

Farrah wasn't sure how Scotty had talked her into this. One minute, she was on her way back to her quarters after a day on the bridge when Scotty had called her over to the transport pad to help him send a gift to his nephew. Now she thought it was going to be some sort of gift wrapped present, but no, it was Scotty, so of course it wasn't.

It has been about two weeks since the Galileo crashed on that planet and Latimer was killed and buried in space. She'd had her rest and then everything was back to normal. It was hard trying to stay awake for those 24 hours, but she somehow managed and as the last second passed, she had passed out on her bed. But really, how stupid were those nurses. She'd just been through a very traumatic ordeal and they wanted her to stay awake for over 24 hours. She had hardly even gotten 5 hours of sleep in 3 days. But hey, what's another day right?

She tended to stay away from all that medical stuff, (that's what Lenny was for) But what was the worst that could happen if she fell asleep with a concussion? Maybe be in a coma for a day, but that really hadn't seemed so bad at the time.

But she knew they did have the training and decided to listen to them. And if Jim hadn't of been there with her, she would have gone straight to sleep anyways.

"Right then, here goes! All ready on your end, Chris?" Scotty asked his nephew who was on the screen in the console, all the way on Earth at the academy.

"Ready, uncle Monty!" Chris replied smiling at him.

"Good! Now remember, I've got to bounce the little bastard's molecules off a couple of relays to make it all the way to Earth, so it might take a little time!" Scotty told him as he started hitting buttons in the console, before stopping to look at his nephew, "You're sure no one'll interrupt us?"

"I'm sure! The academy's a ghost town for the holidays! The transporter bays empty! Fire away!" Chris told them smiling.

Right, the holidays. It was hard keeping track of things out here in space on a metal ship when you didn't have the changing seasons to guide you. It sure didn't feel like fall to her. Farrah never really liked thanksgiving. Her father was usually working; it was just herself and Magnolia, which wasn't so bad when she thought about it. And it might be cliché but that woman was a wonderful cook. As a child though, she could never truly enjoy the festivities. She remembered playing the turkey in one play and only Magnolia had been in the audience to clap for her.

While Farrah supported her father's job, and understood how demanding it was now that she herself was living on a ship for months at a time. But while he had been away, it felt like she had lost both her parents, not just her mother. It seemed she and her father had switched places now, with him on Earth waiting for her to return, and she on the Enterprise seeing the stars.

"Excellent!" Scotty replied pressing some more buttons, "Beaming now!"

Farrah watched as the fur... thing, (she really didn't know what it was called) was wrapped in a white-blue glow and then disappeared from their sight, hopefully on it's way to Earth which was… well very far away.

"Give my best to San Francisco, you lucky fur ball!" Scotty said waving as it left.

"Scotty, are you sure we aren't violating several quarantine restrictions with this crazy experiment?" Farrah asked looking over at Scotty with an eyebrow raised.

"Farrah, my friend. If science didn't eagerly flout the conventional rules of its day in the name of progress, you and I would be sitting in a cave somewhere painting mammoths on the walls," Scotty replied looking over at her.

"And what if Jim finds out?" Farrah asked.

What was she even doing here, Scotty said he was going to do something marvelous; he needed a witness and apparently she was just the woman for the job. She should have just walked away, or told him not to do this.

"The Captain has much more to worry about than a harmless experiment in transwarp beaming. Besides, that fur ball is the most innocuous life form I've ever seen. It would be more of a threat to beam back a piece of Andorian cheese," Scotty said as they turned and looked at the screen, which showed Chris back with the fur animal in his hands.

"Uncle Monty! It worked! He's adorable!" Chris said holding up the animal.

"Fantastic! Excellent work on your end! I'll see if I can't get you extra credit for this!" Scotty said smiling at him.

He turned to Farrah and have her a smug look, "See, lass. I told you nothing would go wrong!"

'RED ALERT! ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS!'

Scotty spoke too soon as the automated voice called over the comm.

"Red Alert?" Scotty questioned standing up.

"Something must be wrong," Farrah told him the obvious as they got up and ran off towards the bridge.

Again, she wondered why she had let Scotty talk her into this. She didn't think Jim would do anything too bad to her, but he couldn't play favorites just because they were a couple. It would be unfair, and Starfleet would reassign her to another ship if they thought them working together would be a problem. But she'd worry about that later.

"Seems like the Captains over reacting just a wee bit, don't you think?" Scotty asked as they ran beside each other into the lift.

Farrah could only shrug, she doubted Jim would turn on the alarm just because of Scotty's experiment, and knew something else must be wrong.


"Captain's log: An exploratory mission to the Iota Germinorium system has resulted in an encounter with a Klingon bird of prey far from the border of their empire."


And he thought it was going to be a slow day. So of course, it wasn't.

"Stay on their trail, Mr. Sulu!" Jim called out to his helmsman.

"Er…Captain?" Scotty's voice alerted him to his presence.

Jim quickly glanced over at his Chief Engineer, spotting Farrah walking in behind him and quickly taking her post at the Tactical officer's console.

"I take full responsibility for-" Scotty started, but Jim cut him off.

"Mr. Scott, we're at red alert!" Jim said to him, "Why aren't you in engineering?" He asked.

"Well, sir, I just wanted to apologize…" Sctty replied, scratching his head, though sounding apologetic, "I know I should have consulted you first. I just thought that you needn't be bothered by-"

Jim held up a hand to stop Scotty from talking, again, "Mr. Scott what are you talking about?" He asked.

Jim was very confused, what was Scotty sorry about, what did he do now…

"Well, sir, the…my experiment with the…" Scotty started before realizing something, "The red alerts not my fault?"

"Whatever you were doing wrong, Scotty. It can wait," Jim replied shaking his head then standing up out of the captain's chair, "I've got Klingons to deal with."

"Klingons, sir?" Scotty repeated in surprise, though he couldn't help but feel relieved he wasn't in trouble, but then he remembered. Klingons.

"Update, Sulu!" Jim called out to the helmsman.

"Almost in visual range, sir," Sulu replied looking down at the console.

"Ms. Pike, get the weapons system's ready!" Jim called out to Farrah.

"Yes, sir," Came her reply, and she immediately went to do as he asked.

"Sir, they're hailing us!" Nyota called out to him, "Audio only!" She said, turning on the comm for the Captain.

"This is Captain James T. Kirk of the federation starship Enterprise! Identify yourselves!" He said into the comm.

"Zzztt nadewo yighos zzttzz muh alzzztt-" Was the reply from the Klingons, which aired around the bridge.

"Lieutenant, what are they saying?" Jim asked Nyota to translate.

"It's breaking up! Something about an 'execution'," Nyota replied playing back the audio.

"Sir, they've jumped to warp! We've lost them!" Sulu said looking over at Jim who had sat back down in his chair.

"Chekov, see if you can sniff out a trail we can follow!" Jim ordered the younger man.

"Aye, Sir!" Chekov replied doing as asked.

Jim turned and looked over at Spock, who had walked over to stand beside his chair, "If we can catch up to them before they cross back into the empire…find out what they were up to out here…" Jim trailed off, leaving the sentence hanging.

"I do not think intercepting their ship is worth the potential for conflict, Captain," Spock replied crossing his arms, "Indeed, we may best be able to ascertain their intentions by investigating where they have been, rather than where they might be going," He continued before walking over to a screen and pulling up data to show Jim as he followed him over.

"I conducted a scan of the nearest habitable planet, Iota Germinorium IV. A small class M planet previously unexplored by the federation. No advanced life forms to speak of, but there appears to be an abundance of local fauna and flora," Spock explained, pulling up something different onto the screen, "Most curious. There appears to be several examples of advanced technology scattered across the planets surface at regular intervals."

"You think the Klingons left them there?" Jim asked looking over at the screen with him, seeing the small dots all over the green sphere that represented the planet.

"I think there is a distinct possibility. I am as yet unable to determine the exact nature or purpose of the technology," Spock answered, nodding.

"We can always beam one up and have a look ourselves," Jim proposed as they walked away from the screen.

"Unwise, Captain," Spock replied, "We should consider the possibility that the items the Klingons left behind are potentially…lethal."

Jim sighed as he sat down, "How did I know you were gonna say that?" He said to Spock before looking over to the front of the bridge ahead of him, "Up close and personal it is then. Mr. Chekov, plot a course for Iota Germinorum IV! Full impulse, Mr. Sulu! Let's find out what they're up to."


"Ready to energize on your mark, Sir!" An officer called out to Jim as he stood inside the transport pad along with Scotty, Spock, and Farrah.

"I need the two of you to figure out whatever is down there is meant to do, if the two of you can't then I don't think anyone else can," Jim said looking over to Scotty and Farrah, dressed in suits equipped with sealed helmets.

He and Spock were wearing the same ones, just different colours, in fact they were the same type as the ones they'd worn when going down to that Romulan drill they had tried to stop from destroying Vulcan, and failed. A fact that still haunted him to this day. He couldn't imagine how Spock felt about it…

"Aye, that's all well and good, Captain. But what was that Mr. Spock was saying about 'local fauna'?" Scotty asked him nervously.

"Energize!" Jim called out to the officer, and soon they were being enveloped in the transport beams, "Just do what I do when I meet new life forms, Scotty. Smile…" Jim's voice cut out as they were beamed onto the planet.

"…And keep your phaser handy," Jim finished as the four of them looked around the planet, covered in giant roots and trees, cliffs, and strange plants that had rings around them which were glowing. Not to mention the pink sky.