Chapter 11 – What To Do?

Everybody was still in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment.

"There's another little point you might want to think about," said Stuart diffidently.

"What's that?"

"If you are stuck here for a while, what are you going to do about their jobs? They all work."

Everyone thought about this.

"Goof off?" suggested Zak, smiling.

"Goof off?' Uhura queried.

"Pretend you're sick and take the day off," explained Leslie.

The Star Trek crew were shocked at the notion. It was against their work ethic and discipline.

"Yeah, but who knows how long this will take? They might have to pwetend to be ill for weeks," dismissed Kripke.

"What jobs do they do? We could assess whether their jobs match up in any way to the skills and abilities of the person possessing their body," Spock suggested.

"Good idea, Spock. What does my body, I mean Leonard do?" Kirk asked.

"He's a physicist at CalTech."

"CalTech?"

"It stands for the California Institute of Technology," Raj explained. "We all work there. I'm an astrophysicist, Howard is an aerospace engineer, and Sheldon and Leonard are both physicists."

"So, you are all scientists. We should be able to maintain that cover for a while," Kirk said.

"Just remember," Spock cautioned, "that we must not change the course of history. We must not allow any human of the current era to gain information from our more advanced age that could alter the course of history."

"I wouldn't worry about that too much," Leslie said. "Most of your technological advances don't work in our universe, anyway."

"Don't work?" Spock queried, raising one eyebrow.

"Yeah, the transporter, for example. The laws of physics in our universe simply don't allow it to work."

The Star Trek crew was shocked again. Thank God, Scotty wasn't there thought Kirk. He might never have recovered.

"And your history isn't our history," added Wil Wheaton. "Vulcans are not going to make contact with Zefram Cochrane."

"More's the pity,' muttered Stuart.

"It's a shame that Dr McCoy is not with us,' Spock said. "His knowledge and experience might have been very useful now."

Nurse Chapel bristled. Even her adoration for Spock had its limits.

"You're forgetting, Mr. Spock," she said coldly, "that we do have a qualified medical practitioner with us. Me."

Spock stared at her for a second and then inclined his head. "My apologies, Nurse Chapel. You are, of course, more than adequate to carry out the necessary research."

'Good to know that misogyny is alive and well in the Star Trek universe,' Leslie commented.

Kirk was shocked. "Not at all," he protested.

'Oh, come off it, you treat your crew like your own personal harem. The female officers certainly don't get treated the same as the male ones," Leslie argued.

'Might I suggest that this is not the time for this discussion, interesting as it would be," Spock said gravely. "We need to focus our attention on working out how to get back to our universe."

'Then don't behave like a male chauvinist pig," Leslie told him.

There was a shocked silence.

'Hey," Zack said. "don't you just need to have a swig of that drug again?'

Everyone stared at him. A simple but obvious solution. Why hadn't he thought of it? Kirk swung around to Nurse Chapel.

"Christine, could it work?'

She frowned. "It might. But ideally, it should be the exact amount as before. And what agent was it put in?"

'Huh?' said Zack.

"She means the drink Kripke put it in," Leslie explained.

"It was the punch," Kripke confirmed.

"Then I'd need to replicate the same mixture."

"Someone needs to go back to the party and grab some of that punch," said Raj suddenly. "Before it all goes."

Kirk looked at the young civilians. He forced himself not to make it an order. "Could one of you go back and collect some of it?" he asked.

"I will," said Leslie. "I wouldn't trust any of the rest of these bozos to do it right."

"I'll come with you," Wil Wheaton said.

Leslie scowled. "I don't need any help.'

'You never know," Wil told her. "And an actor might just be handy."

She sighed. "OK then."

They left.

Raj spoke to Kripke. "Have you got any of the drug left?"

Kripke took a small black bottle out of his Bat belt and shook it. "There's hardly left," he reported.

"How much did you put in the punch?" Nurse Chapel asked.

Kripke chewed his bottom lip. It was not an attractive look. "Practically the whole bottle."

"Can you get hold of some more?" Kirk asked.

Kripke shrugged. "Not until Monday morning. My pal's away for the weekend."

"So, it looks like we're here until Monday. I think the best we can do is wait for those two to return then get a good night's rest and regroup in the morning."

His crew nodded.

"Well, I'm going to a bar," Zak said. "The party was lame and there weren't any other girls."

"Can I come with you?" asked Kripke.

"Sure."

Wil Wheaton and Raj stared at them.

"But you're here with real characters from the Star Trek universe," Raj spluttered.

Kirk winced. He didn't think it was good for his officers' morale to hear themselves described as characters. It certainly wasn't good for his morale.

"Can I count on you gentlemen returning in the morning?" He looked hard at Kripke. "Especially you."

"Don't worry," said Raj. "I'll make sure he does."

"And me," added Wil Wheaton who was determined not to miss out on the fun.

"And we'll stay until Leslie and Wil return," said Raj. "Just in case."