Star Fleet didn't want to take the chance of erasing another high-profile officer from the flagship and ordered the Enterprise away. They were going to send another science vessel-

"Really? Really? The USS Nerd? Is that even legal?"

"Who said Star Fleet doesn't have a sense of humor?"

- to support the local historians for a long-term project.

With regret, Elle watched the planet of the Guardian diminish. "I'll be back," she determined, leaning on the back of Chekov's chair, "and I'll get a straight answer out of it one day."

"I'm sure you will," Chekov said.

She looked over his shoulder at the console. "Where are we going next?"

"Planet surveys on this edge of the sector," Kirk said, "we're hoping to see if the temporal ripples have affected local lifeforms in any significant way."

"Cool."

-/\-

"Spock?"

He lifted an enquiring eyebrow. "You should be asleep, Elle. What troubles you?"

She sat across from him at the computer station and leaned forward on folded arms. "The timeline change," she said. "And the Guardian. He, it, didn't like me."

"I do not believe it is sentient enough to the degree to dislike a person," Spock said doubtfully.

"It said that I change everything I touch."

"It spoke the truth," Spock replied. "You do change everything you touch. The simple fact of your existence changes everything."

Elle blinked. "I'm not sure that's comforting," she said.

"It is cthia," Spock said, pushing away his PADD. "It does not have to be comforting to be true."

"Cthia," Elle echoed. "Reality-truth. Isn't that subjective though?"

"The universe and our perception of it is intrinsically subjective," Spock replied. "You know that better than most."

"True." She traced a faded stain in the worktop. Somebody had probably spilled acid here, or Ensign Naraht had put his fringe on the table. "But if I had shown up, and I hadn't known all about you guys, would I still have changed anything? I don't remember the alternate timeline. Did I change anything, in that universe with Commander Thelin instead of you?"

"Perhaps," Spock said. "Perhaps not. In this case, it is not so much a matter of what if than what is."

"Kaiidth," Elle said.

"Yes."

They were silent for a moment.

"Elle."

She looked up at him.

Spock looked back at her, dark eyes somber. "You will struggle with this question your entire life," he said. "But you must accept what is. This reality is now your own. Even if you leave the Enterprise one day to join Star Fleet, or go to Vulcan, or become a space nomad with Mr. Chekov's girlfriend, you must take the reality of your situation and make it your own."

Elle cracked a grin. "You think I'm gonna go be a space hippie, Spock? I haven't even learned how to play the guitar."

He rolled his eyes. "I was using it as a hyperbole," he said primly. "You cannot keep looking to the past and wondering what-if. That viewpoint will do you no good, either as a Star Fleet mission consultant or as a young woman with foreknowledge."

"I know," Elle said soberly. She thought about lives lost on previous missions, about the pinched look on the captain's face when he spent nights fretting the loss of his crew. "I'll try."

"That is all we can do," Spock said. He reached over and deliberately placed his hand on her arm. "You should try to rest."

"I guess. You gonna be okay?"

"I will be 'okay'," he said, his eyes crinkling in the tiniest of smiles. "Good night, Elle."

"Good night, Spock. Love you." She slid off the chair and went to bed.

-/\-

Elle stared at the stack of PADDS, appalled. "What is this?"

"Paperwork," Yeoman Barrows said placidly.

"Why are you giving it to me?"

"You're about to be sixteen, you need to get a headstart." Barrows started pointing at PADDS. "This one is your updated contract with Star Fleet as a consultant, as you're still a minor but over sixteen your hours per week can go up another ten. You'll have to sign it, but Captain Kirk or Commander Spock will also have to co-sign as your primary guardians. This one is the guidelines and requirements for a person in the ages between sixteen and eighteen working with Star Fleet as a consultant on an active ship, including proper filing of paperwork, confidentiality, and regulations for those in that age bracket. As you're also on track to be getting your adult posting on a starship, these are the requirements for civilians attached to active starships, which is different, because you'll need to start upping your hand-to-hand and self-defens courses, and these are your updated pension information."

Elle gaped. "And all this couldn't fit on one PADD?"

"These are all different confidentiality levels, PADD's hate that," Barrows replied. "Just be glad you don't have to file hard copies."

Elle blanched.

"Uh-huh." Barrows kissed the top of Elle's head. "Don't worry, the captain's put the entire yeomen department at your disposal, kiddo. I'd start with that one."

Elle gulped and picked up the one about renewed contract. "I hope they streamline this process if they ever put more civilians on starships," she said.

"This is the streamlined process," Barrows said, smirking.

Elle groaned. "Seriously?"

Later, Spock was patently unsympathetic to Elle's frustration with pages of paperwork. "This, too, is reality," he said dryly, reading over the contract. "And one must accept it."

"Ugh." Elle looked over at the captain for sympathy.

Kirk toasted her with his coffee cup. "As much as we hate it, paperwork makes the world go round," he said.

"You're just saying that," Elle accused, "you've spent hours complaining about paperwork."

His eyes twinkled. "Maybe, but I'm contractually obliged to agree with my yeoman."

"Very good, captain," Yeoman Barrows said patronizingly.

Elle laughed in spite of herself.

-/\-

Zerus III was an idyllic planet, full of oceans, islands, and waterfalls. Hawaii on steroids, if one had to make a comparison, complete with slow-flowing volcanoes. After two detailed orbital scans and one shuttle flyover, the Science department determined it was safe to send survey teams down.

"Can I go on the survey?" Elle asked, giving Spock her best puppy eyes. "You said the next module was hands-on experience, and I can do sample work. Please?"

Spock gave her a nod. "If the first away team discovers no signs of current surface instability, you may join the away team on its second pass," he agreed.

"Awesome! Thank you, thank you." Elle almost gave him a hug, gave him a thumbs-up instead, and bolted away to hover over Chekov's shoulder to plan out the away team's route.

"You're gonna spoil her," was McCoy's sage observation, from the central dais.

Kirk laughed. "Well we did say we were going to take her sailing," he said, "and this is as close as we're getting to shore leave and a boat."

"You said you were going to take her sailing," McCoy corrected. "I get seasick, no thank you."

"Aw, c'mon Bones, a fun day out on the water, picking up phytoplankton samples?" Kirk teased.

"No," Bones retorted, scowling, "that's what I have biologists for. To delegate to."

"To whom you delegate," Spock corrected, because he was a blatant troll.

Elle glanced at McCoy for his rebuttal, delighted.

"You can take your whom and-" McCoy noticed Elle's grin and cleared his throat. "And be in charge of the away team if your heart's so set on it," he finished.

"Laaaame," Elle said, wrinkling her nose.

"I can still keep you onboard cataloguing allergens," McCoy threatened, a grin on his face.

"No!" Elle clasped Kirk's arm, giggling through her mock-horror. "No! Captain tell him!"

Kirk laughed. "Too late Bones, I already promised her."

McCoy smiled fondly. "Sunshine'll be good for you. Don't forget your sunscreen."

"Yes, mom," Elle said obediently, and darted off the bridge, cackling as McCoy sputtered.

-/\-

"Communicator, tricorder, sample kit which I'll get from Spock, boots, floatie vest, extra hair tie - did I go pee? I should probably go before we get in the shuttle." Elle put down her belt and went to the bathroom. She came back out. "Okay. Comm, tricorder, boots, hair tie, rations in case of camping-" She secured the final straps on her boots. "Okay. That was the checklist. I'm good to go." She picked up Simba and kissed it on the head. "Be good, I'll be back in eight hours or two days if we find particularly interesting seaweed. Or the temporal anomalies that Spock's hoping for." She placed Simba back in its habitat.

Simba purred in farewell.

Elle met up with the rest of the away team in the shuttle bay. The captain, Spock, a micro-biologist, a xeno-biologist, a xeno-botanist, and Lt. Martinez, the Designated Elle-Sitter. Elle stowed her kit and went to sit down.

"I don't have any reason to come unless I pilot," Kirk said, politely elbowing Spock out of the way.

Spock's eyebrow lifted in the Skeptical Slant. "You are the captain, it is your prerogative to accompany any away team."

"Tell that to the regs," the captain grumbled.

Spock did not retort; he didn't like the captain leaving the ship, either. It was very Riker of him.

Elle pressed her lips together tightly and tried not to laugh.

They entered the planet's atmosphere and did a lazy loop around their landing site: an island that was barely an island. It was a perfect spot to catalogue life, according to the marine biologists.

Kirk landed the shuttle with a gentle thump. "What did we name this island, lieutenant?" he asked.

"Gilligan, sir," the lieutenant replied.

Elle snorted so hard she started coughing.

They all looked at her. "What?" Martinez asked.

"Gilligan's island?" Elle asked. "Really?"

Kirk frowned. "Is that a reference to something?"

"Never mind."

They got out of the shuttle and started setting up the inflatable transparisteel-bottomed boat. "It's like a Zodiac, if this were a Clive Cussler novel," Elle mused, watching the captain and Lt. Eid struggle with the engine clasps. I probably shouldn't have read about having to sail in a bathtub right before getting in the ocean.

She shook herself out of it and went to get a sample kit from Spock.

They got on the glass-bottomed boat and put-putted away from the miniscule island. The captain was at the helm of the boat, and he was one beer-in-hand away from becoming a fisherman dad, the way his shoulders were dropping their tension. "Nice day," he remarked, smiling.

Elle stifled a fond smile.

They quickly settled into an easy rhythm. Drop the bucket, raise the bucket, fill the sample jars. Drop the bucket to a lower depth, raise the bucket, you get the picture.

Elle held up a small shrimp in one of the jars. "Krill," she said jokingly.

"It may be," Spock said. "We do not have enough information to guess at a subspecies."

"There's a lot in this area," Martinez said. "What does that mean?"

The marine biologist, Liirien, rolled their eyes. "It means there are many krill in this area."

Kirk put a hand over his mouth to cover his laugh.

"Any coral reefs?" Elle asked. "Can we go snorkeling?"

"No," Spock said, his tone fond.

Elle sighed and passed over another bucket of salt water. "Why don't we have droids?" she asked.

"That's not as fun," Martinez said. "And we do have droids. But they don't have intuition."

"Commander Stabby does."

Martinez snorted. "Commander Stabby can also be bribed to stab other people in the ankles."

Elle choked on a salt spray and giggled hysterically. "He didn't. What did you bribe him with?"

"It wasn't me," Martinez retorted, glancing at Kirk'n'Spock. "And apparently hoovers are partial to glitter."

Elle wiped at her eyes, leaning weakly against the side of the boat. "That's hilarious," she wheezed. "That's horrible. I'll talk to him."

"As the roommate to the stabee who was complaining for four hours, I would greatly appreciate it," Martinez said.

"Hm," Spock said, in that tone of voice. The last time he'd used that tone of voice it had meant, 'there are sentient amoral rocks on this planet'.

Elle sat up. "What?" she asked warily.

"I'm getting a large life-form reading nearby," Spock said, adjusting the settings on his tricorder. "It might be a swarm of these krill-like creatures, if they are moving in sync."

Liirien consulted another tricorder. "Same readings. Captain, could you move us away from this area? We may be able to get a clearer view if we're not right on top of it."

Kirk started the motor and put the boat forward. "How far, lieutenant?"

"Here is fine," Liirien said. "Commander Spock?"

"Better readings," Spock said. "Now two large readings..." His eyes widened. "Captain, high speed, move us away, now-"

The captain hit the throttle.

Elle braced herself against the side of the boat and watched, agape, as a massive green form burst from the ocean, composed mostly of mouth. It rose up, up, up, forty feet in the air, hanging in midair before it began to fall back to the ocean - directly upon the away team.

Elle screamed as the gargantuan whale dropped towards them.

"Jump!" the captain cried.

Spock practically hurled Elle over the side of the boat and she hit the water like a cannonball ten feet away.

The whale-shark-Jonah-eater hit the boat like a photon torpedo. It vanished under the sea creature's bulk and the water splashed high into the air.

The water hit Elle like a vortex and she got swept underwater in the wake of the creature. She spluttered and choked, trying to find the surface. Which way is up? Which way? Where-

There was seaweed under the water, thick clumps that snagged in Elle's vest and legs, slimy against her face.

Her lungs burning, she kicked frantically as she reached for the sunlight, trying to escape the grip of the seaweed.

Another swarm of krill went past and behind them, the whale.

Elle screamed as the whale came right at her. Running on instinct, she yanked the flotation vest off her torso. She dropped like a stone, close enough to feel the whale's sleek body brush against her arms. The whale flicked its massive tail and the water turned into a whirlpool.

She was out of air, kicking desperately against the raging water as she turned head over heels, caught in a field of krill and seaweed. Help! She couldn't swim- there was still seaweed tangled in her legs, inexorably dragging her down. Her lungs burned.

There was a blur, and noise, and the whale brushed by again, intent on this krill buffet-

Elle couldn't scream, there was no air, no air, she was going to drown, killed by a space whale- she struggled against the seaweed and broke free, barely. She inhaled in a gasp and cursed herself as she choked on water, too much water, she was going to die-

There was a muffled shout, and there was Spock, twenty feet away-

Spock, Spock, Spock! Elle reached out-

The whale came back around-

Its tail whacked her at full force-

Elle saw Spock's face twisted in something like fear-

Everything went black.

To be continued, in Volume II: Ex Astris, Scientia

A/N: ...And, we're done! Yes, I did end on a cliffhanger. I've been working on this series for six years, and Vol. 1 is finally done. Fear not, Elle will be back in Vol 2 on Monday, same as usual. Scroll down for a sneak peek of Chapter 1...

She startled awake, hacking up seawater, gulping in air with greedy starved lungs. "Wha-" She spit up more water and couldn't stop coughing. Seaweed draped around her head and she tore it away- couldn't catch her breath- her right leg felt like it was on fire-

There were shouts, noises, the kind of noises that meant "Medical emergency!" There were hands, questions, a firm whack between her shoulder blades which led to more seawater coughed up-

She saw the brim of a purple hat just before her eyes rolled back in her head.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited, etc. I'll see y'all in TNG, Decoherence Volume 2!