After a short investigation, Kirk found that they were on a smallish transport ship, with only Scotty, Peter and himself as its crew. It was named the Dandelion, a really stupid name, he thought. While he walked through the ship's living compartment, Scotty was right behind him. He had left Peter in the transport bay. "How has the deal gone?", the engineer wanted to know. "What deal?", Kirk asked absentmindedly. "Don't tell me you were down there all night and you didn't pull the deal!"
Kirk turned to Scotty. "Look. There must have been some accident with the transporter. I am supposed to be on a Starfleet ship named USS Enterprise. Not wherever here is. I don't know anything about a deal." Scotty mustered him again. "What are you? A Romulan spy?" Kirk sighed. "If I were, wouldn't I be the worst spy in existence?", he retorted. "Well…", Scotty seemed to ponder that. "You see, this wouldn't be the first time that the transporter sends me into some kind of parallel dimension.", Kirk added. "I have only read some speculations about the possibility. But this would need some serious amount of energy to achieve.", Scotty replied. "Energy the Enterprise's warp core is able to produce." Scotty laughed. "Jim, I think you hit your head, lad." Kirk was shocked to hear his engineer address him so casually. "If there was a ship like that, I would know."
"You know what we are going to do? You and the boy are going to lie down for a bit, while I fly the ship back to Star City. Doctor Bones will have a look at you.", Scotty told him rather insistently. "Bones?", Kirk asked, suddenly a bit excited. "They must have gotten you hard. You hate that guy.", Scotty said while shaking his head lightly.
For lack of a better alternative, Peter and Kirk had done as Scotty had suggested. Now, they were sitting in a room that passed as their bedroom, as it seemed. It was rather small and contained nothing but a bunk bed and a hammock. Kirk wondered who slept in the hammock and sat down on the lower bed's mattress. Peter on the other hand jumped into the hammock and swung it back and forth until he collided with the wall. "You know what, Uncle Jim?", he asked after a bit. "What's it?", Jim answered. "This is quite fun." "The hammock?", Kirk asked for specification. "Yes, that too. But I mean that transporter thing. We're going on an adventure together." Kirk frowned. "I think we have a very different definition of fun, Peter."
To his pleasure, Kirk found most of his paperback books stacked in a box under the bed. He looked at them, as they seemed strangely out of place but belonging at the same time. "I believe you like to read, Peter?", he asked his nephew who was already leaning over him. "Yes.", Peter excitedly confirmed. Kirk took one of the books out of his collection. "Do you already know the detective stories of Arthur Conan Doyle?", he asked while waving his antique copy of The Hound of The Baskervilles. Peter shook his head and Kirk gave the book to him. Smiling, he left Peter to his own devices.
A short corridor connected the bedroom, a cooking corner, the transporter pad and a small bathroom with the bridge. Another door led to the cargo bay, the signs on the door warning of the atmosphere inside, as it was cold and low in oxygen, and only save to enter with a specialized suit. Kirk used the door that opened to the bridge. Kirk found that it looked a bit similar to the Enterprise's, but only when he squinted. It was only a few square meters in size, but it housed a pilot and navigator station, an engineering corner and a console for environmental control. There was a spiral staircase leading down to the engineering deck. Kirk remarked that it lacked a Captain's chair.
"Estimated time of arrival?", he prompted Scotty, who was sitting on one of the stairs and fiddling with some technical device. "Twelve hours at normal cruising speed.", the engineer replied. Kirk took a few seconds to calculate. "This 'Star City' is zero-point-three light years away? You want to tell me that there are no medical personnel in more than a quarter light year?" Now, Scotty definitely looked at him like he was crazy. "It's only point-zero-four lightyears. What do you think, that we are flying with Warp six?" To be fair, that was the Enterprise's normal cruising speed. "What does this thing even run on, coal?" They stared at each other for a solid minute. "I'm starting to believe you.", Scotty admitted.
Kirk spent some of afternoon figuring out how the coffee-maker worked and producing a cup for Scotty and himself each. He handed it to the other man. "I guess you have to show me around this ship. It doesn't seem to be save that you're the only one who knows how to operate it." The Scotsman nodded. "Aye."
Scotty started by teaching Kirk on how to use the piloting system. It wasn't too hard for either, as the controls were very similar to the ones Starfleet used. "It's strange.", Scotty remarked after a while. "You're very similar to the Jim I know, but also eerily different." "The feeling is returned, Mister Scott.", Kirk replied. "On this Enterprise of yours, do I live there as well?", Scotty wanted to know. Kirk nodded. "You're my chief engineer. Probably one of the smartest guys on board." Scotty seemed to like that. "You're the Captain? And do I get to wear a fancy uniform like you do?", he asked and pointed to Kirk's yellow shirt. "Yes. Except it's red." Scotty stroke his own blue jacket. "I certainly prefer this color."
"May I ask you something as well?", Kirk asked. "Aye.", Scotty offered him. "How come you operate a transport vessel together, you and the other me?" Scotty seemed to think for a moment. "We meet at a bar at some space port. You sat next to me and asked if I knew any good engineers around here. You had just bought your first ship, the Dandelion, and needed some crew. I said here I am and you hired me immediately. We became friends soon after and are business partners for five years now. Two years ago, you took Peter on board after his parents were put in prison." "Prison?", Kirk asked, not believing his ears. "Yes. They were part of a drug ring. They made some rather questionable live choices." "This means Sam is still alive?", Kirk immediately wanted to know. "Yes. But not going to walk free for the rest of his life." Kirk found that he was unsure on how to feel about that.
Scotty had decided that Kirk needed to learn how to control and use the cargo-bay. Putting the safety suit on was an unexpected challenge, as there were too many straps for him to handle. Scotty had to help him disentangle himself and to put the suit on correctly. That done, they covered their mouths and noses with breathing masks and entered the cargo-bay through a hermetic double door. While they were waiting for the second door to open, Scotty turned to Kirk. "How much cargo does the Enterprise haul?", he asked. Kirk laughed a bit. "The Enterprise is not a cargo ship, Mister Scott." "No?" "No. She's mainly an exploration vessel but also equipped for combat." By now, the door had opened.
"There's something like an interplanetary fleet, then? Are you part of the military?", Scotty proposed. "We don't like to call it a military fleet. But mostly, probably yes. It's called Starfleet. It's the Federation's exploration and defense organization." Scotty looked at him, while they were going down rows and rows of cargo. "Federation?", he asked, obviously curious. "Don't tell me you don't have a Federation either.", Kirk stated, taken aback. Scotty just kept looking at him. "It's a union between two dozen planets and systems. Earth, Vulcan, Andoria and Tellar were its founding members." Scotty laughed. "Vulcan and Andoria in a union?" By now, they had reached the end of the cargo-bay.
Scotty showed Kirk how to operate the cargo-bay's controls to load and unload the boxes containing the merchandise. This took some time, since Kirk had never before done anything similar. Finally, they were ready to go back to the living quarters. Peter was already standing in the kitchen. "Uncle Jim, I'm hungry.", he announced, while they were taking off their suits. Kirk suppressed the urge to answer 'Hi Hungry, I'm Uncle Jim.' Instead, he looked at Scotty. "I guess it's time for dinner anyway.", the Scotsman said. "The food packs are in this cabinet over there. Why don't you heat some water while I check our course?"
To Kirk's surprise, the kitchenette had a real faucet with real water. He stared at it for a moment before holding what he surmised was a water cooker under it. "Don't you have any sonics around here?", he asked Scotty as he returned. "Any what?", Scotty asked. "It's a way of using alpha-radiation to clean things.", Peter tried to explain. "Why is it called sonic when you are using alpha-radiation?", Scotty asked, now intrigued. "Because of the sound. It was probably figured that things like 'sonic shower' sounded much better than 'radiation shower'.", Kirk explained. Scotty seemed to think while pouring the scolding water over what would soon be the colorful cubes Kirk knew only too well. "I think I could build something like that easily.", he stated.
They spent the evening answering Scotty's questions about the federation, and thereby learning some tidbits about the universe they were currently in. As it appeared, the Vulcans and the Andorians had never ceased fighting, which had prevented the Federation from being founded. Without the Federation, there was no Starfleet and not much exchange of ideas and technology, explaining the Dandelion's sad specs. Luckily, they didn't happen to talk about Peter's parents again, and he didn't ask.
Sleeping in one room with Scotty and Peter was a little awkward, Kirk found. Scotty however, being used to it, took the top bunk like he apparently always did, leaving Kirk the lower bed. Peter happily took the hammock. After Scotty had started to snore slightly and Peter seemed to sleep as well, Kirk began to think. How could they return to their universe? If he just had Spock with him, he wished. Then it dawned him. That was the solution. He just needed to find this universe's Spock and talk him into helping them to get home. But where would he find the Vulcan? He could be everywhere. Maybe this dimension's Bones could help, he thought while drifting into sleep himself.