Author's note: The next chapter may not be uploaded for a little while, got some stuff going on. But I ensure you, I will continue this story. Whatever spare time I have, I will spend on writing this. Hope you're enjoying this so far, I've had the idea for this one for a while.
It took the Enterprise almost a week to arrive at Delta Vega, surprisingly Scotty hadn't tried to talk himself out of going back, mainly because he knew that Lexie would probably just drag him down if he tried to go back on his decision. But that didn't stop him from feeling more and more nervous, he hadn't slept well and had buried himself in his work more than normal, trying to take his mind off it all. Scotty couldn't believe how big of a negative effect Delta Vega had on him, so he tried to think of the positives (there weren't many) it was there he met Keenser, his best friend and where he met Kirk who subsequently gave him the position as Chief on the Enterprise. Soon the ship was orbiting the frozen planet and Lexie, Delta, Scotty, and Keenser wandered their way to the transporter room, to see that there were people waiting for them when they entered. "You come to see us off Captain?" Questioned Scotty, but Kirk shook his head."Nope, I'm coming with you. Along with McCoy, and Chekov." Scotty just switched between staring at Kirk and Lexie. "Don't look at me, I didn't ask them to come." She stated quickly.
Kirk laughed. "Star Fleet asked me to go down, besides more the merrier right?" Scotty just nodded since he didn't really know what to reply with. The doors then opened once more and in walked Spock, "I came by to see you off Captain." He said, Kirk walked over and placed a hand on the Vulcan's shoulder. "Thanks Spock, you doing alright?" The Vulcan just nodded. The reason Kirk had asked was because they were very close to where Spock's home world once stood, that was until it was destroy some years ago. "I wish you luck with your mission Captain, do be safe." Kirk patted Spock's shoulder, "Thanks Spock, we'll be fine. What could possibly go wrong?" McCoy rolled his eyes, wishing that Kirk hadn't said that. Then all six of them then stepped onto the transporter, Lexie was holding Delta in her arms tightly. She had asked Kirk if he could come along since he may come in handy, which Kirk agreed with. He knew that she rarely went anywhere without him, soon they were all surrounded by swirls of light before vanishing from the room.
The group soon found themselves in a large open room, Kirk looked around to check if everyone made it down in one piece, but there was someone missing. "Scotty?" He yelled, grabbing the attention of the others. It was then they heard a muffled voice calling out. "Why can't I ever just get beamed down into the right spot!" Quickly heading off in the direction the voice had come from, the group soon found Scotty. He was hanging upside down by one of his feet which had somehow gotten stuck between two metal pipes and he clearly wasn't very happy about it. "Would one of ya kindly help me down, please? I don't think having all my blood rushing to my head is a good thing." Kirk was trying his hardest not to laugh since the Scotsman did look very funny hanging from his feet. "OK Scotty, we'll get ya down. Give me a hand Bones." Both the Captain and the CMO stepped over to free the Engineer. It wasn't long until Scotty was the right way up again, with his feet back on solid ground. He was a little bit wobbly which McCoy said was normal and it would pass in a few minutes. Scotty thanked them then glanced around, it looked exactly like it was when he left. "This is where you were posted?!" McCoy questioned; Scotty nodded. "Aye, you think it looks bad in here, you should see what's outside." Kirk felt a shiver run down his back, he knew what it looked like out there and he also knew what creatures were lurking about. Scotty had wandered over to a nearby desk, it was clear that no one had been here for some time since there was a thick layer of dust covering everything.
"Did Star Fleet say when the last Officers left?" He asked as he ran his finger over the desk, clearing a small runway of dust. "About six month ago, after that everyone they asked to come here refused." Kirk stated as he walked over to a nearby table. Just then a deafening scream echoed throughout the room, Delta buried his head into Lexie's chest out of fear. "What was that?" Chekov asked slowly, Scotty walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "That was just a Drakoulias, one of Delta Vega's resident beasts." Delta muttered something into Lexie's chest, it seemed he had asked a question. Since Lexie had heard it she decided to ask it for him, "Delta wants to know if that was coming from inside?" Scotty shook his head quickly. "It came from outside, there's no way of anything getting inside. We're perfectly safe." But Delta still didn't remove his head from Lexie's chest, Scotty smiled as he walked over and spoke softly to him. "It's alright lad, there's nothing to be scared of in here. Promise." This time Delta turned around and gave Scotty a small smile. After seeing that he was ok Scotty turned to face the others, seeing that Keenser had already hurried off to see about getting some heating. Scotty swore it was somehow colder than before, either that or he had become desensitised to the low temperature after some time on a Star Ship. "May I suggest that none of you go anywhere alone in this place and under no circumstance go outside, unless either myself or Keenser is with you. This place can be a little dangerous if you've never been here before." Everyone simply nodded, they then split into groups. Chekov and Lexie (And Delta) stayed to examine a pile of books while Kirk and McCoy followed Scotty.
As they walked McCoy and Kirk were busy talking, however Scotty hadn't said a word. They soon came to a desk which Kirk had seen before; it was at this exact desk where he first met Scotty. It looked like it had been frozen in time, everything was where Scotty had left it, including the half empty mug of coffee which no one had been bothered to get rid of. "Whatever officers got stationed here, they didn't stay for long. Nothing's been touched, everything is the same as it was when I was here." Scotty stated as he sat down at the desk and switched on the computer. But the screen didn't turn on, which confused the group. The lights were on so clearly there was power, so why didn't it power up. "Must be something wrong with the power relay tower outside." Scotty announced with a loud sigh, "Can you fix it?" McCoy asked, hoping that the answer was yes. "I should be able to, why don't the two of you head back over to Chekov and Lexie. I'll head outside and see what the problem is." Kirk and McCoy just stared at him, "You ain't going out there alone Scotty, I'll come with you." Kirk said quickly, but Scotty wasn't in any mood to argue. "I can go by myself Captain." Scotty snapped as he stood up and began to walk away.
"Head back to the others Bones, I'll keep an eye on him." McCoy nodded to Kirk, who took off after the Scotsman. He soon caught up to him just in front of a door, "I said I can go on my own Captain." Scotty snapped once again, Kirk stood straight and just stared at him. "And I said that I'm coming with you." Scotty opened his mouth to argue, but Kirk got there first. "That's an order Scotty." Kirk watched as the Engineer's mouth opened and closed, he was trying to find some words to respond with. Eventually, Scotty spoke, "Fine!" He then grabbed a pair of goggles that hung on the wall. "You'll need these, even if it ain't snowing out there." Scotty threw them at Kirk who quickly slipped them over his head, while Scotty did the same. After both of them had their eyes covered, Scotty opened the metal door that they were standing in front of. Which opened up to reveal nothing but snow. Kirk laughed in amazement, "For once, it ain't snowing. That's a good thing." But it was clear that Scotty didn't share his Captains view, "Let's just get to the relay tower." He muttered as they began to wade through the snow.
It took them a little while to reach the tower, however it looked like it had seen better days. The metal was slightly rusty and it was a bit wonky too. "It looks like it's taken a right good beating." Kirk said as he watched Scotty kneel in front of it. "What do you expect for something that's probably older than you." The Scotsman grumbled as he opened up a small box which sat at the towers base, he then pulled out a tool from his jacket pocket and began poking the wires around. "Everything's working down here, so the problem must be up there." Scotty stated as he closed the box before standing up, placing his tool away and then walked over to a ladder, which didn't look too safe. "You're not thinking of climbing up that are you?!" Kirk asked nervously, "I've done this hundreds of times, I'll be fine." Scotty replied as he set off up the ladder, leaving Kirk to watch on anxiously from the ground. He couldn't care if the Scotsman had done this a billion times, it still made him nervous. Scotty soon reached the top, only to make the huge mistake of glancing back down at the ground.
He tightened his grip of the ladder, "I don't remember it being this bloody high up!" he muttered to himself. Scotty quickly moved his glance to the small circuit box which sat at the top of the ladder, once again removing the tool from his pocket he set to work, trying to fix the issue. Kirk didn't take his eyes off the Engineer, even when his neck began to ache from staring straight up. If something happened, he wanted to know instantly. Suddenly Scotty jolted backwards, thankfully he was able to keep a grip of the ladder. Kirk felt his heart skip a beat or even several, "Are you alright?!" He yelled. It took Scotty several seconds to reply, in which Kirk had cried up to him again. "I'm fine! Just a little shock, I should be finished in a minute or so." Kirk was relieved to hear that, he couldn't wait for Scotty to get down from there. Sooner the better in his opinion. There was then an extremely loud creaking noise, Kirk swore he saw the tower move. He believed it was just the cold playing tricks, that was until it suddenly jolted. Sending Scotty crashing to the ground. Kirk's face went white as he watched the cloud of snow slowly settle, "SCOTTY!" He cried as he ran over.
Scotty could hear someone calling his name, but he couldn't make out who. He fluttered his eyes open slowly, to see nothing but a grey sky. He heard the voice again, just as he felt something touch his arm. This time he recognised the voice, it was Kirk. "Scotty, are you alright?" His Captain asked, "Feel like I got hit by a battle ship, what happened?" He replied slowly. "The tower jolted and you fell. Are you hurt?" Kirk asked as he helped Scotty to sit up, "Don't think so." It was then Kirk saw that the snow where Scotty's head had been resting was no longer white, but red. "Scotty, your heads bleeding!" Slightly confused as to what Kirk was going on about, Scotty placed his hand against the back of his head. It stung when he touched it and it felt wet, Scotty then made the mistake of looking at his hand, which was coated in blood. Kirk watched as his face turned almost as white as the snow, as he quickly looked away from his hand. "Why do I always make the mistake of looking." It was a well-known fact that the Scotsman didn't like the sight of his own blood, he then felt something being pressed against his head. Scotty realised it was Kirk, who had taken off his scarf to use as a bandage. "Let's get inside so McCoy can take a look at that cut." Scotty went to nod but his head hurt too much.
McCoy was helping Chekov and Lexie look through some old journals which some of the officers had left behind, while Delta was uploading data from several chips they had found, and Keenser was working away on a heater when they heard Kirk's voice echo around the room. "Bones!" McCoy looked up to see Kirk walking over with Scotty, his hand still pressed against the Engineers head. "Jim, what the hell happened?" He cried leaping from his chair, "Scotty fell from the relay tower." Kirk replied. "Again?" Said Keenser, much to everyone surprise. Keenser very rarely spoke and when he did it was often only one word, but the fact he said again made them concerned. "Did you have to say that?" Scotty muttered angrily, "You've fallen from that before?" Kirk asked as he sat Scotty down on a chair to allow McCoy to take a look at his head. "Only a couple of times while I was here, never got seriously hurt though, only a few cuts and…" Scotty's explanation was cut short by him crying out in pain as McCoy touched his wound. "You'll live, I'll bandage it up for you." McCoy stated as he grabbed a roll of bandages from a bag he had brought with him. "Do you know where you are?" He asked, Scotty looked confused. "Why you asking?" "I need to see if you've got a concussion, so answer the dam question. Do you know where you are?" Scotty had to think for a few seconds, "Delta Vega, right?" McCoy nodded. At least he didn't have a concussion, which was a good thing.