A/N: Greetings, friends, from chapter forty-two, the answer to life, the universe, and everything, which according to this chapter is apparently ugly fridge magnets. Or time travel. One of those.
"Where are you going, cap? Can I come with you to the base? I want a fridge magnet from the souvenir shop."
Kirk blinked. "You don't even have a refrigeration unit in your quarters."
"I do too," Elle protested. "It's for Simba's snacks."
He looked at her. "You have a fridge for That Tribble which only eats every fortnight?"
Elle grinned sheepishly. "It may contain my own midnight snacks," she admitted.
He raised an eyebrow. "Requisitions let you have a personal unit?"
"I built it for an engineering project and Scotty let me keep it," Elle explained. "I made its own battery and everything so I don't draw power off the main. But if I have a fridge I need magnets."
"Do you, though?" he asked.
Elle bounced on her toes. "It's my twenty-first century culture of materialism," she said frankly. "I can't help it."
He finally laughed. "Well at least you're honest. I'm not going to the base for that, though. Apparently the Enterprise's next mission briefing can only be given in person. Admirals Wiggins and Nogura-" he made a slight face "-have requested mine and Mr. Spock's presence."
Elle bit her lip. "Admiral Nogura... he doesn't like you, does he?"
Kirk shrugged and started walking down the corridor.
"Do you kinda know what they're gonna tell you?" Elle asked, following him.
"I have a feeling they're going to have us research the Aegis, whoever or whatever they are, as we're the ones who've encountered two Earth offshoots in the last month."
Elle nodded. "Yup. Are all starships this prone to weird stuff happening?"
"Says the girl who helped rescue Vulcans from a space amoeba," Kirk deadpanned.
"I guess that answers my question," Elle said, grinning.
They entered the transporter room and found Spock there, talking to Chief Kyle. "Captain," Spock said, nodding. "Elle."
"Mr. Spock." The captain turned to Elle. "I'll bring you a magnet. Do you want a tasteful one or a cheesy one?"
"Cheesy," Elle replied promptly. "Can't I come with you?"
"It's a restricted briefing," Kirk said instead.
"As mission consultant, Elle does possess the necessary clearing for restricted briefings of this nature," Spock said mildly, still studying something on the transporter console.
Kirk sighed. "Nogura would flip his lid. I don't wanna get on his bad side."
"He already doesn't like you," Elle said, giving him her best puppy eyes. "Please? You know you want me there to give you the deets. Please?"
Kirk sighed. "Fine."
"Awesome! Thank you, captain." Elle got onto the transporter dais after Spock, grinning.
Kirk rolled his eyes and got into position. "Energize, Mr. Kyle."
They materialized on the starbase and headed for the Fleet admin offices on the upper levels. "Elle, I'm serious though, Admiral Nogura has a lot of pull in the 'fleet, so I want you on your best behavior."
"Yes, sir."
"No picking fights."
She hesitated. "What if he's being really mean?"
Kirk smothered a laugh. "No picking fights," he repeated.
"Yes, sir," she said reluctantly.
-/\-
"Captain Kirk."
"Sir?"
"Is there a reason you have a child in this briefing room?" Nogura gave Elle a glare.
Kirk's smile turned slightly sharp. "This is our civilian mission consultant. She is authorized to be here."
"On whose authority?"
"Really, 'chiro? That's where you're gonna make your stand?" Wiggins asked, rolling her eyes.
"The things we're going to discuss are top secret," Nogura insisted.
Elle squinted at him. "So's my file. That's why you can't see it. If you don't like Captain Kirk why are you even here, sir, with all due respect?"
Kirk very carefully did not choke on a laugh and instead turned a disapproving gaze on her. "Elle, please."
Spock's eyebrows went up and he raised his eyes slightly heavenward.
Admiral Na'isha Wiggins smirked. "You certainly pick your mission consultants well, Captain."
Elle resisted the urge to sink under the table and concentrated on giving Nogura the stink eye.
Nogura almost frothed at the mouth. "I am here to impress on Captain Kirk the gravity of the mission the Enterprise will undertake," he said, his tone at zero degress Kelvin. "Any missteps and the consequences could be dire for the entire galaxy. Why are you here?"
Elle resisted the urge to make a spontaneous duck face. "I'm here because if this is what I think it is, I know more about the 1960's than any of you."
Nogura's eyes widened and then he glared. "HOW-" he started, about to start firing people.
Wiggins held up a calming hand. "As entertaining as it would be watching you argue with a twelve-year-old," she said, hiding her smirk behind her other hand, "I think we'd better press on to the briefing at hand, Admiral."
Nogura gave Elle a final glare of deep suspicion and turned to the computer screen. "Captain Kirk, you are henceforth ordered to use the slingshot maneuver you invented last year to return to 1960's Earth during the Communist era. Your objective is to find and observe the Aegis in action, and if they are indeed an alien civilization with technology on par or ahead of the Federation, to initiate contact and hopefully set up a time and place to meet in this time."
Kirk blinked. "You want us to time travel?"
"I know," Nogura said dryly.
"Why us?" Kirk asked.
"No one else wanted to do it," Wiggins said, heaving a sigh.
"Ah."
Nogura sniffed. "I do not have to emphasize the importance of this, I hope. You must be extremely careful not to interfere with the timeline. No government of that time must be aware of the Enterprise or its people."
"Admirals, we don't even know when specifically the Aegis removed the Yangs and the Kohms to Omega Four," Kirk said. "The slingshot maneuver cannot be done with that level of accuracy in any case. This is a very..." He trailed off, waving his hands vageuly without trying to say something disrespectful.
"It's a shot in the dark," Wiggins said frankly. "But that's all we have. We know the Aegis had to have been there for some time to observe that period of time in Earth's history, and that's our closest bet."
Kirk glanced at Elle.
"Oh we'll find them all right," Elle said, twisting her fingers through the end of her braid. She needed a haircut. "The Aegis was mostly responsible for the successful end of the Eugenics Wars after that time."
"How do you know that?" Nogura demanded.
"In what way?" Spock asked at the same time.
"Who do you think caused the super-humans to start self-destructing in the first place and got Khan off the planet before he managed to take over?" Elle replied before she could stop herself.
Silence.
"They're very fond of humans," Elle said, totally aware she was digging deeper into the hole, but she couldn't stop talking. "They have their own humans, too. Aware of the bigger picture. It won't matter anyway, because they're still so far advanced it's like the Vulcans all over again. They're not interested in the Federation. We're still babies with disposable cameras on a trip to the zoo." She finally managed to shut up and bit her lip.
Wiggins' looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh. "How do you know that?" she asked.
Elle opened her mouth, closed it again. "Uhhh. That's classified. Ma'am."
Nogura squinted at her. "Are you some sort of DTI operative?" he asked. He looked like he was getting a migraine.
"No sir," Elle said. "I didn't even know they went this far back though. That's good to know. I mean it makes sense, since we did discover time travel and all. Did they sign off on this, anyway?" She caught Kirk's warning look and stuffed her sweater sleeve into her mouth. "Never mind, none of my business," she muttered through the fleece.
Nogura ignored her through the rest of the briefing, directing himself to Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock with the details of the briefing. There were so many alternate plans in case the Enterprise got stuck in some weird time loop or went to the wrong time/place that the possibilities made Elle's head spin. But, Nogura was nothing if not thorough, and the plans were actually good.
The two admirals dismissed them with one more warning about time travel and orders to proceed directly for the Sol system to begin the slingshot maneuver.
Elle went over to Nogura to shake his hand. "Thank you, admiral, for such clear instructions," she said sincerely. "It's really reassuring to see how Star Fleet cares about its people more than its missions."
He blinked down at her, surprised, and shook her hand. "We would be nothing without the people who take the risks," he said.
"I know," she said. "It's nice to see an admiral who remembers that. Thank you." She went to stand next to Spock.
Wiggins waved at her as the three Enterprise'rs walked away. Elle waved back.
Kirk looked down at Elle. "What did I say about picking fights, mister?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Not to," Elle said.
"And?"
"I didn't!" she protested. "He started it!"
Kirk took a deep breath and released it slowly through his nose. He was either about to pull his Captain Voice or start sniggering. "Point," he admitted.
"I apologized," she said.
"By chastising him for flying a desk?" Kirk asked wryly.
"That's not what I was doing," Elle protested half-heartedly.
"That's sure what it sounded like," he retorted.
She scowled. "I just didn't want him to try and promote you any earlier than you ought to be promoted. If he remembers it starting now, then we should be good."
"Promo- never mind. I'm not touching that one." Kirk sighed.
"Sorry," Elle said quietly. "I didn't mean to, really, it just kinda came out."
He ruffled her hair, messing up her braid. "I know, kiddo. And thank you, anyway. That was the most entertaining briefing I've had in months."
"I did not know that human phisionomy could indeed turn the skin purple," Spock added, his tone completely dry.
Kirk sniggered. "Oh, his face. That was so good." He gestured. "Look, you can go buy your fridge magnet."
"Ooh." Elle hustled over to the souvenir shop. She carefully selected the tackiest, most garish fridge magnet proclaiming 'Starbase 4' in an ugly block font.
"That is the ugliest thing I've ever seen," Kirk said, eyeing her purchase with mixed horror and glee.
"Isn't it the best?" Elle agreed, sticking it in her sweater pocket.
Spock raised an eyebrow. "I do not see the purpose of this souvenir," he said.
"Aesthetique," Elle replied.
Spock blinked. "It does not fulfill any requirements for aesthetic purposes."
"That's the point," Elle said. "It's ugly. It's cheerfully ugly."
Spock's other eyebrow went up in that 'your-illogical-ness-is-killing-my-brain.' "Fascinating," he deadpanned.
Kirk laughed. "It's a very human thing to do, Spock. You'll get it someday."
"I do not believe I have enough human DNA to reach that level of understanding," Spock said, rather snootily.
"Don't let McCoy hear you say that," Kirk warned, hiding his smile. "He'll take that as a challenge."
Spock looked appropriately horrified.
Elle just giggled.