"I finished reading Dixon Hill #7," Elle said, plopping down across from the captain. "What're we reading next?"

"Well, if you could read this and give me your thoughts," Picard said, handing her a PADD.

She started to skim it. It was a speech about... archaeology and Tagus Three? She looked up. "Did you write this, captain?"

"The Enterprise is to serve as host of the Federation Archaeology Council's annual symposium this year," Picard announced, looking positively gleeful. He linked his hands together. "I've been asked to give the keynote address, as we will be orbiting Tagus Three."

Elle beamed at him. "Really? That's awesome!" She scrolled back up to the top and read it again in earnest. Picard had given her his 'Tagus Three early civilizations' ramble a few times, but this was a proper speech, with outlines and everything. "This is really good."

He looked pleased. "Really?"

"Really." She scrolled further down. "You should really publish your research, captain."

He waved his hands. "If I survive this conference, maybe." He took the datapad back from her and pulled out a paper book. "Have you ever heard of Ellery Queen? A contemporary of Dixon Hill."

"You're on a mystery book kick," Elle said, amused. She studied the cover. The House of Brass. "Something light to balance out the heavy archaeology talk?"

"Precisely."

-/\-

"Elle, since you've assisted me in archaeology things before, I'd like you to be present at the dinners and mixers," Picard said. He transferred a file from his computer onto her datapad. "These are the files of all the people coming on board. You have permission to snoop, lightly."

"Thank you, captain," Elle said, smirking. "I shall do so. Nerd con, Indiana Jones edition. I got this."

Elle did not, in fact, have it. She spent the next four hours looking over records, files, papers, theses, and journals. "Why.. why are we having it on the Enterprise and not in some cool ruins?" she complained.

"Because Tagus Three does not allow offworlders in the ruins," Data said.

"Data, I don't want logic, I want ice cream."

"Ah."

-/\-

"The first guest is arriving tomorrow, and three more the day after, and then everyone else all at once," Riker said. "Guest quarters are all set, and Guinan is finishing up the menus for the dinners."

Picard nodded slowly, looking over the PADD full of arrangements. "This event will be a good time to teach you about wine tasting, Elle," he said. "Guinan made a good host of selections."

She blinked. "Wine tasting?"

"Of course. You'll be attending many, many banquets and official dinners and celebrations over the years, you should learn how to distinguish the good from the bad, and decide which ones you want to drink, and which ones you're going to pretend to drink."

That did sound useful. And Federation drinking age was 16, so. "Sure," Elle said. "Sounds fun."

"And that way when we go back to France you can impress Robert," Picard added.

"Wait a second, how come you never taught me?" Riker asked.

"Your palate has already been formed," Picard said primly.

"He's calling you cheap," Elle added, breaking into laughter.

Riker huffed, but he couldn't stop the grin that broke out. "Whatever, sir."

-/\-

Dr. Switzer arrived during ship's midnight. Picard and Elle were there to greet him and get him settled in quarters, and Elle volunteered to give him and whoever else a tour at 1000 hours. After midnight, two other archaeologists arrived. Another three arrived during breakfast.

Elle watched Picard speak archaeology-babble with them, and decided if he ever retired, he'd make an excellent Professor Oxley. Well, that was a different actor but the same vibe. Unless he was going to be Jean-Luc Died-with-his-boots-on Picard. Was he?

She shook her head, banishing that line of thought. She got up and brought the coffee carafe over. "Refill, professors?" she asked.

"Thank you, Miss Wilcott, yes."

"-And the new dating system..."

"Well, that would depend on what the council decides based on these new findings-"

"You can't possibly believe that humans and Klingons are related," Dr. Switzer said, aghast.

"Well, why not? They looked just like us for almost a century-"

Elle smothered a laugh at the thought of the Augment virus on the Klingons. "Don't remind them," she murmured in Picard's ear, and he snorted in amusement.

-/\-

The ship was full of visiting dignitaries, and Elle was enjoying the chance to run around with the yeomen and keep an eye on them, brandishing a clipboard and ferrying people to their designated locations.

Captain Picard's keynote speech was in an hour, and the attendees, the senior officers, and the archaeology/anthropology departments were mingling in one of the lounges larger than Ten-Forward for brunch. Elle had staked her spot near the waffle bar, and she was eating a bowl of whip cream and blueberries with impunity.

Dr. Crusher came over to get more French toast sticks. "The nerve of that woman," she seethed under her breath.

Elle frowned. "What woman?"

"The one that's here to steal from Tagus Three, that woman Jean-Luc met on Risa." Dr. Crusher gestured subtly to a striking woman who was attempting to flirt with the captain. To his credit, the captain looked supremely uncomfortable.

"Vash," Elle said, a sinking feeling in her gut.

"Yes, exactly," Dr. Crusher said.

Elle put down her whip cream and blueberries. "No, no, I didn't realize this was that episode. He better not-" She hustled over to Picard. "Captain, excuse me, I need to speak with you," she said. "This is an episode."

"Excuse me," he said crisply to Vash and grabbed Elle's elbow to hurry her away. "Thank goodness you interfered," he said, "your timing was perfect."

Elle grimaced. "No really, this is an episode."

Picard sighed and tugged her into an unused office down the corridor. "Very well. What are we dealing with?"

"Q."

He facepalmed. "Why."

"Why does he do anything?" Elle asked. "Stop fighting with Vash and maybe he won't come."

"What?"

"This is the episode where-"

A flash of light, and a hand over her mouth. "Acht, no spoilers!" said a gleeful voice. "Don't give the game away so soon."

"Q," Picard said, already irritated beyond belief.

Elle licked Q's palm.

"EWWWWW," Q said, withdrawing his hand as if she was diseased. "That's disgusting, Elle! So uncivilized!"

Elle gave him a big menacing toothy grin. "Don't be annoying then."

He shook his palm frantically. "See, no, that's disgusting. Ugh." He disappeared his own hand and reappeared it. "I just put my hand in a supernova and made a new one, and it still feels gross. UGH."

Elle smirked.

"Q," Picard snapped. "Why are you here?"

"Ah yes, before I was so rudely attacked," Q sniffed, "as I was saying." He clapped his hands together and gave a mocking bow. "Jean-Luc, it's wonderful to see you again. How about a big hug?"

The captain folded his arms, Unimpressed™.

"Nothing?" Q asked. "I was hoping for something more along the lines of, welcome back, Q, it's a pleasure to see you again my old friend."

"We're not friends," Picard said.

"You wound me, captain."

"I'm your friend," Elle piped up.

"Friends don't lick each other," Q said, wrinkling his nose at her.

"Actually," Elle started.

"Shh." Q pointed at her. "Go talk to someone else."

There was a flash of light, and Elle found herself back in the lounge, near the wall. She shook her head, and headed over to talk to Commander Riker. "Q's here," she said, interrupting his and Troi's conversation. "Being annoying as usual."

Riker sighed. "Any idea what he wants?"

"Rats for his new maze," Elle said dryly.

Riker sighed again. "Why."

Elle decided not to risk being shut up again. "I can't tell you, because he's being a butt-head, but I can tell you that he put his hand over my mouth, and I licked him. It was great. He put his hand in a supernova."

"Elle!" Riker said, smothering a laugh. "You don't know where that hand has been!"

"I don't think that hand existed before he appeared, I think I'm fine," Elle said, laughing at the expression on Troi's face.

"Still," Troi said.

There was a bright flash of light, and all the senior officers disappeared. Vash was gone, too.

"Er, 'scuse me," Elle said to the shocked attendees, and bolted from the room. "Q! I wanna come too!" she screeched, running down the hallway. There was a flash of light.

-/\-

Elle appeared in a different conference room, Q standing across from her. "I wanna come too!" Elle said again, bouncing in place anxiously.

He idly inspected the nails on his hand. "You are not invited. You're too young."

"But it's Robin Hood! I love those tales! And I want to hear Worf say the thing."

Q squinted at her suspiciously. "What thing?"

"I am not a merry man," Elle said, in a passable Worf imitation.

Q barked a laugh. "I'll record it for you if you like, but you're not coming. To put it in terms your little brain will understand, you would ruin the vibe."

Elle decided to come at this from a different angle. "Q, messing with people's relationships and trying to incite jealousy is immoral."

"By whose standards? Certainly not mine. I just want to make sure that Jean-Luc and Beverly's relationship can stand up to the strongest force in the universe. Me." He smirked at her. "But I simply can't have you getting in the way, you're going to ruin my dynamics." He tapped his chin. "I know just the place," he crowed triumphantly. "Lines up perfectly. You can get in some good stories and I can run my little rats through my maze without interruption."

"That's demeaning," Elle informed him.

"Oh, I know." He rubbed his hands together eagerly. "And don't worry about a thing, my dear. They won't remember anything until much, much later." He snapped and vanished.

Elle blinked. "Was something supposed to happen?" she asked the air. "Did you vanish me instead of you? Because that would be the height of comedy."

No answer from the universe or associated beings.

Elle huffed a sigh. "I guess I'll just hang out with the archaeology dudes, then." She turned on her heel and went down the corridor. Maybe Professor What's-His-Name would like to chat about Preservers. She turned through another corridor, and suddenly, the corridor changed.

She stopped in her tracks. The corridor was different, brighter but also smoother, and very, very familiar. Hope began to rise in her chest. She touched the nearest wall panel. "Computer, what ship is this?" she asked. Please let it be...

"This is the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701," the computer's voice said.

Elle started to laugh. "No A, B, C, or D!" she cheered. "Yes!" She took off at a run through the familiar corridors, up to Officer's Quarters. She skidded to a stop in front of Spock's quarters and rang the door chime once, twice, three times- "Spock, it's me! I'm back!"

The door slid open and a woman in command gold blinked down at her. "I'm not Spock," she said. "Who are you?"

Elle gaped. "What? Why are you in Spock's quarters?"

"These are the first officer's quarters," the woman said.

"Yes," Elle said slowly. "Wait, is this another Spock who died as a child timeline? I hate this loop."

The woman gaped at her. "Who are you and what are you doing on the Enterprise?" she asked.

"I live here," Elle said.

The woman sighed. "Commander Riley to Security, intruder alert at the first officer's quarters. Repeat, intruder alert."

"What? No, no, no! Don't do that, I'm serious!" Elle said, waving her hands frantically. "Elle Wilcott, I live on the Enterprise!"

"Civilian minors do not live on the Enterprise," Commander Riley said calmly.

Elle tipped her head up to the ceiling. "Q, if this is a joke, I'm going to punch you so hard the others are going to have to peel you off the galactic plane."

Commander Riley lifted an eyebrow. "Who's Q?"

"Someone who thinks he's funny," Elle said. "I-" A familiar figure came around the corner, carrying a phaser and wearing science blue. "Spock! You're not dead!" She gaped. "You're a baby."

"I am not an infant," a very young, fresh-faced Spock replied severely.

"Yes, you are, look at you! You're like, so young!" Elle turned between Commander Riley and Spock. "Wait, wait. Wait. So this is the original Enterprise, and you're the first officer, and you're baby-face Spock-"

"Please desist calling me that," Spock said.

Elle ignored him. "-So that means this is before I came on board, which means the captain of this ship..."

"Is me," said a new voice, and an older human man came out of the captain's quarters. "Captain Christopher Pike. Who are you?"

Elle gaped some more. "Woowwww. Hi. Big fan," she said, holding out a hand, which he shook cordially. "I, I never got the chance to meet you, uh, wow. This is, crazy." She shook her head. "Hi. Sorry. I'm usually more professional than this but it's been a very strange day." She straightened her shoulders. "Sir."

"I can't even imagine," Pike said dryly, just as a trio of security officers arrived. "Hold," he ordered. He looked at Elle. "Why are you here?" he asked.

"An omnipotent being thought I would ruin his experiments so he punted me back to this time period," Elle said. "Where are we, in space?"

"Orbiting Tagus Three," Spock said.

"Oh, okay. Yeah, he just flicked me through time, because that's where my Enterprise is stationed right now, about ninety years in the future. He'll put me back, eventually."

Pike choked on his next breath. "Ninety-"

Spock's eyebrows were hitting his cute little micro bangs. "Impossible," he said severely.

"Spock, just wait about ten years," Elle replied. "No, what's the stardate?"

He told her.

"Eight years, for you," Elle amended. "You'll do plenty of time travel, don't worry about it."

"Should you really be telling us all this?" Pike asked, looking amused.

Elle shrugged. "Well, Q said you wouldn't remember this till the right time so I'm gonna assume the Temporal Prime Directive doesn't apply in this case." She waited a few seconds, in case somebody from the future came to stop her. "No, yeah, it doesn't apply. We're good."

"Okay." Pike shook his head. "So you're here on accident."

"Yes, sir. I mean no harm, I come in peace, I actually have a vested interest in keeping you all alive, so..." Elle grinned. "This is so cool. I never thought I'd be back here."

"All righty, then. Security, stand down. Lt, come with us." Pike gestured. "Conference room, I think."

They went to the nearest conference room. "All right, from the beginning," Pike said, accepting a cup of coffee from the security lieutenant. "Who are you, where do you come from?"

"My name is Elle Wilcott," Elle said, "I'm from the 21st century in another universe, I ended up in the 23rd century in this universe about ten years from now, was there for a couple of years, and now I'm in the 24th century, on the Enterprise-D. I'm a civilian mission consultant."

"Which means what, exactly?" Commander Riley asked.

"Which means my security chief is going to blow a gasket when they realize I'm missing," Elle said glibly. "My job is, uh, I know things, and I tell people things they need to know."

Pike blinked. "How are we supposed to prove that?"

"I have no clue," Elle said. "All my ID doesn't exist yet. Honestly, I don't even know if this is the right universe." What could she ask to prove it? What had she asked the first time around? "Spock, do you have a sister?"

He stiffened, Pike winced. Interesting reaction. "I did," Spock said stiffly.

Elle's jaw dropped. "You what. I asked you and you said no."

"One would assume that ten years from now," Spock started.

Elle sank back in her chair. "I can't believe you didn't tell me. I only saw the first season of Discovery before I died, but...wow. What happened to her?"

"Classified," Pike said firmly.

Elle winced. "Ah. That kind of classified. No wonder you lied."

"I haven't lied yet," he protested.

"When I get back I'm gonna yell at you," she informed him pleasantly.

Spock's eyebrows made the 'this is the worst day of my life', expression. "Why would it concern you that I refrained from telling you if you only knew me for two years?"

Elle ignored him. "You are just like your father. See, I knew you weren't telling me something, you were way too tolerant with the mood swings of teenage girls to not have personal experience with them." She contemplated this. "I could've had an aunt! I feel cheated."

Pike was trying very hard not to laugh. "Okay, we're getting off track here."

"Story of my life," Elle muttered, shaking her head.

"I am nothing like my father," Spock interjected.

Elle snorted. "The next ninety years prove otherwise," she said fondly. "Starting with, taking responsibility for a traumatized human orphan girl." She gestured to herself. "Give it another few years, as I said. You actually get two. Well, the one after me's half-Romulan, but same diff."

"Half-Romulan?" Pike asked. "You know what Romulans look like?"

"Yeah," Elle said, "of course." They stared at her for a moment. She realized, belatedly, that Balance Of Terror wasn't until Captain Kirk's time. "Ah."

"What do they look like?" Pike pressed.

Elle opened her mouth, closed it, pointed at him, waved her hands around, and sighed. "I don't think I can tell you that. Q said you guys won't remember me being here but I don't want to take chances, especially since it's all so new... well, you know, the only thing I'd be doing is sparing Lt. Bailey's epic breakdown... no. No, if you guys want to know what Romulans look like, you can go look for the answers. The House of Surak archives at the Citadel, ten floors down the sub-basement, next to all the racy Pre-Reform poetry, and before all the stuff about magic Vulcans supposedly no longer believe in."

Spock's eyebrow went up. "Off-worlders are not allowed into the archives."

"Legally, a'nirih, I'm House and Clan Surak," Elle replied.

"Fascinating," Spock said.

Commander Riley covered her grin. "I can't see you being a father, Spock," she mused blandly.

Elle grinned as Spock's ears turned green. "Don't worry, the entire senior officer staff and yeomen's department took charge of me."

"A little tiny cadet," Pike mused. "How'd you convince them?"

"I'm too classified to go anywhere else," Elle said. "I have direct previous knowledge and foreknowledge of the Enterprise."

Eyebrows went up all around the table. "I find that hard to believe," Pike said pleasantly.

Elle sighed. "Okay. I'm going to tell you guys, but you can't put this in your reports or you'll mess up the timeline. Promise?"

"No," Pike said.

Elle rolled her eyes. "Fine, here goes. In my universe, there's a show called Star Trek..." She explained, as best she could, the tv shows, the books, the comics, the correlation between the two universes, the percentage of things she'd gotten right so far, and the nature of archetypes on storytelling and multidimensional bleedthrough that would result.

"Fascinating," Spock said. "Captain, there is no reason it could not be true."

Elle half-raised a hand. "And, I've been talking so long I think I know how to prove it to you," she said triumphantly. "Can you get a hold of Admiral Robert April?"

Pike and Number One exchanged a glance. "It is two in the morning on Earth," Number One said, eyes twinkling. "You could wake him up for a change."

"Good idea." Pike tapped the comm set into the table. "Bridge? Get me Admiral April, Priority 2 channel."

"Aye, sir," came the voice. "Standby."

"I don't remember you though," Elle said, turning to the female Security officer who'd been silent this whole time. "I kind of recognize you though, Lt...?"

"This is Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh, our Chief of Security," Pike said.

Elle gaped. "No way! Like, the-"

"I don't like to talk about it," the lieutenant said stiffly.

"No, yeah, totally, I get that, but, wow... the genes really come through strong, huh?" Elle said, staring at her in fascination. "That's like, what, six, seven generations, and your cheekbones are like, identical. That's so weird."

"I'm sorry?" Lt. La'an asked.

"I knew your, uh, progenitor," Elle said awkwardly. "He tried to kill me, like twice. He was bluffing though, mostly. I think."

Four sets of jaws dropped. "I'm sorry?" La'an said. "You knew-"

"From your universe?" Pike asked. "You met him?"

"No, from this universe," Elle said. "Time travel stuff. They ended up on the Enterprise, and we had to go make a deal with them, and all this stuff. I convinced him not to take over the Enterprise."

"How?"

"A heavy-handed three-dimensional chess metaphor," Elle said. "Also I told him if he squashed my head open Spock would kill him, so..."

"Every word out of your mouth concerns me more and more," Pike said, after a second of stunned contemplation.

Elle smiled. "It's fine. I've only died three times."

Spock made a slight choking sound.

"It's fine," she assured him. "It hasn't stuck yet."

Pike cleared his throat. "So how long do you estimate that you'll be here?"

Elle sighed. "Well, he-who-shall-not-be-named could drag it out for hours, but I don't know how long he's going to leave me here."

"What exactly is happening on the Enterprise-D?" Commander Riley asked. "What does this omnipotent being want with your crew?"

Elle sighed. "Basically, there's this race out there that's in charge of the physical dimensions and the races therein, they wanted to test humans to see if we were worthy of continued existence, my captain is awesome and proved we actually do have some use, and the higher being administering the test became fascinated with his psyche. My captain is in a loving committed relationship, so this aforementioned nosey-parker decided to test the concept of love, loyalty, etc, by putting them in a reconstruction of the Robin Hood/Maid Marian scenario with one of my captain's old girlfriends... and he said I would kill the vibe so he didn't want me around." Elle crossed her arms. "I maintain, for the record, that I would be an excellent longbow yeoman. Worf said I have great core strength."

Pike stared at her for a moment. "Are you lying?" he asked.

"No, sir," Elle replied. "It's just as stupid as it sounds. You'll find that for being guardians of the universe, the Q are extremely bored and petty and et cetera."

Pike snorted. "Like most people born to positions of power?"

Elle smirked. "Just like."

The screen switched on. "Admiral April for you, captain."

A sleepy, rumpled-looking admiral squinted at them. "This had better be an emergency, Chris," he threatened. "Who's that?"

"This is Elle," Pike said. "She claims she's from another universe and also from our future. We need some sort of proof that she's telling the truth and she's in the right universe."

April blinked. Rubbed a hand over his eyes. "And?"

Elle cleared her throat. "How did your ship, the Enterprise, receive its name?"

He looked wary. "It was named after the NX-01."

"Was it?" Elle asked, aware that if she spilled classified information, Q or not, she was going to get tossed in the brig. "When you first got this ship, she wasn't the flagship. She was just a Constitution-class with no markings. A pure white bird with a skeleton crew. You kidnapped your own first officer to go save a ship trapped in an ion storm. The only ship that could. Until you made an unexpected detour."

April looked stern. "We saved that ship. Logs will show it was the Enterprise."

Elle smiled. "I know. And I know who named her, and I know why you let him do it. You said that the captain of such a ship would take someone who blended the two qualities perfectly - daredevil and philosopher."

"That was a private conversation, how do you know that-"

"Just like I know how to bluff a Romulan, sir," Elle said, and he shut up. "I read it in a book, and then I met the fruits of your labors."

"Did you?" April asked, very calmly.

"I did, yes," Elle said. "Good botanist. Still eats his food one food group at a time."

April met her gaze for a long second, and then looked at Pike. "She's legit," he said. "Chris. You didn't hear anything."

"Yes, sir," Pike said. "Thank you."

April signed off.

Elle smiled at the others. "All right, it's all the same universe."

"Good to know," Pike drawled. "Now what?"

"Well you're in orbit around Tagus Three, what for?" Elle asked.

"Archaeological survey," Pike said.

Elle's eyes widened. "Really? Can I go down? I can assist the A&A teams, I've had training."

They eyed her skeptically.

"We did a lot of anthropological surveys on the original Enterprise, and my captain on the Enterprise-D is an archaeology buff," Elle said. "That's why we're here, for the Archaeology Conference, and his keynote speech is on Tagus Three, he's been studying their ancient civilization for years, but at some point in the future, they stop letting offworlders into their ruins. If I could look at the ruins and get some more clues, that would be so cool."

Pike and Number One exchanged glances. "Are you trained in away team protocols?" Pike asked.

"Yes, sir," Elle said promptly. "Trained by Sec Chief Giotto and later, Worf. I have all my certifications, my pilot's license, and I know the rules in an active archaeology dig."

"Well," Pike said, "fine, then. Spock, you're in charge of Sciences, you can decide where to put her."

"And if this Q comes back while we're on planet?" Spock asked, logically.

Elle shrugged.

"All right," Pike said.

Someone in science blues entered. "Oh, you guys are way early," he said, setting down a stack of datapads.

Elle gaped.

"Lt. Kirk," Pike said, "this is Elle Wilcott, a civilian mission consultant for the Enterprise. She'll be studying as an archaeology intern for this mission."

"Hi," Lt. Kirk said, holding out a hand.

"You look exactly like Kirk with a mustache," Elle said numbly, shaking his hand.

He laughed. "That's because I am Kirk with a mustache," he said. "You know my little brother?"

Elle choked out an incredulous laugh. "You could say that, yes. I, wow, this is actually really disconcerting." What she didn't say out loud was that Peter Kirk looked almost exactly like his father, but he had his mother's chin. "Hi. Nice to actually meet you."

"You too," Lt. Kirk said agreeably.

Other senior officers began to filter in for what was apparently the scheduled mission briefing. Elle subsided back into her seat and let them stare at her.

"Commander Hemmer, Chief Engineer," Spock murmured, sotto voce. "Dr. M'Benga, CMO."

Elle grinned. "Dr. M'Benga, a pleasure to see you again."

The doctor's eyebrows went up. "I don't think I remember you, miss?"

Elle waved it off. "You will, eventually."

"Lt. Ortegas, helm," Spock said, as another confident woman came in and sat down.

Elle didn't recognize her at all. Of course, Sulu would be too young to be chief helm. Was he somewhere in the depths of the ship, working in Botany still?

Captain Pike cleared his throat. "Everybody, this is Elle Wilcott, she's going to be our guest for a while until her guardians can retrieve her. Lucky for us, she's also going to assist us with the Tagus Three mission. Lt. Kirk, take it away."

"Sir." Lt. Kirk brought up the scans. "Tagus Three, home to a Federated world. They're very cautious of offworlders, wary of cultural mixing. They have ruins of their previous civilizations, wonderfully preserved by the native climate. They've agreed to host an archaeology team for the next two weeks to assist the local university archaeology teams."

-/\-

The briefing finished, and people scattered to talk and go over details. "So," Lt. Ortegas said, coming up to Elle, "what are you, like twelve?"

"Sixteen," Elle said, "almost seventeen."

"Hm. Where's your parents?"

"In another universe," Elle said.

Lt. Ortegas blinked. "Ah. Sorry."

"S'okay. It's a good question."

Number One approached. "Elle, you've been assigned guest quarters during your stay here. And Dr. M'Benga wants you to do a full workup while you're here, just in case something happens."

Elle nodded. "Yes, ma'am." She followed Number One and Dr. M'Benga out the door.

Sickbay was, different. Flashier. Elle hopped up on a biobed and watched the displays start to move. "Hm. My blood sugar's starting to dip. I didn't get around to actual breakfast before I arrived."

M'Benga smothered a grin. "You have some medical training?"

"Yes sir, full medic's training. Dr. McCoy wouldn't let me get away with anything less."

M'Benga's eyes lit with curiosity. "Dr. Leonard McCoy?"

Elle grinned. "Yeah."

"Excellent doctor and researcher," M'Benga said. "Well, if you were under his care, then I'm sure you're in peak health..." he trailed off, looking at some blood readings. "Nurse? Your view please."

A young woman with white-blonde hair came over and took the datapad. "What's up, doc? Oh hey, nanites." She looked at Elle. "You have nanites. Why?"

Elle gaped. "Nurse Chapel?"

"Yeah? Do I know you?"

Elle couldn't stop staring. The no-nonsense nurse with a vaguely matronly air who ruled sickbay didn't exist yet. Nurse Chapel was young, totally cool with that wavy bob, and wearing specialist tunics. "You're so cool," she breathed.

Chapel grinned. "Thanks. Nanites?"

"Oh, yeah, they're fine. We have a housing contract." Elle realized belatedly how ridiculous that sounded out loud. "It's a thing," she said. "Don't worry about it, they're cool. And no you can't have a blood sample, they're sentient and you can't separate the colony."

"You're weird," Chapel said. "I like you."

Elle grinned. "So I'm good to go?"

"Good to go," M'Benga said. "You better have a well-balanced breakfast."

"Yes, sir," Elle said.

Number One escorted Elle to guest quarters. "These are your quarters. You'll have access to everywhere except engineering, security, etc. But for now, until the away team is ready to go down, you can go where you'd like."

"Thank you," Elle said.

The commander nodded and went away.

Elle poked around her quarters, and synthesized herself some combat boots instead of 'business meeting flats'. Second order of business, breakfast. She found her way to the nearest mess hall and ordered a breakfast burrito with a cup of hot chocolate. Balanced enough, right?

"Hello," a friendly voice said. "Can I sit with you?"

Elle waved agreeably, trying to chew a huge mouthful of burrito. "Yeah, sorry, hi," Elle said, hiding her face with a napkin. She looked up, and almost choked on the cheesy chorizo. "Lt. Uhura?" she screeched.

"Uh, no," the young woman said. "Cadet Uhura. I haven't graduated yet."

Elle repressed the squee out of sheer force of will. "You're a babyyyy," she cooed, and shoved another bite of the burrito into her mouth before she could say anything else embarrassing.

Uhura huffed a laugh. "You're the baby. How old are you?"

"Older than I was when you meet me for the first time," Elle said. "You're not even graduated and you're so cool."

Uhura laughed. "Thanks. Wait, did you say..."

Elle waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. Time travel."

"Oh, so time travel's a thing now."

Elle huffed a laugh. "Oh yeah, it's a thing. Don't worry, you'll get to be an expert about it."

"Well, I look forward to it," Uhura said diplomatically. "Are you here for the archaeology dig?"

"Yup. Are you coming down?"

"Yup. Tagusian isn't in the database, so they need an onsite translator."

"Awesome."

Uhura regarded her for a long moment. "So what's my future like?"

"Really, really awesome," Elle said. "Good crew, good friends, good family, crazy adventures."

"So, more of the same?" Uhura asked after a second.

Elle grinned. "Yeah."

-/\-

After she finished eating, she toured through the Enterprise. A lot of it was the same, some things were different.

"Elle?"

"Captain." She turned to face him. "This is my favorite observation room when we're in orbit."

"Hm. Mine too." He joined her near the rail. "Got your bearings on this ship?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good, good." He watched Tagus Three for a long moment. "You know the future," he said. "You know our futures."

"Yes, sir."

"My future."

Elle bit her lip. "Yes, sir."

"What is it?" he asked.

She frowned at him. "I, you, shouldn't know your future," she said. "It's a lot."

"I already know it," he said, sounding tired. "I just want you to confirm it for me."

Elle gaped at him. "You already know it? How?"

"There's a temple on the Klingon moon of Borath," Pike said. "It houses these, time crystals. If you pick one up, you get, a vision, of your future. I grabbed one, and it showed me mine. I accepted it, but, I want confirmation. Please."

Elle pulled herself together. "Yeah, I, yes. I can do that." She cleared her throat. "So, you save some poeple, and get a huge dose of radiation poisoning. Um, you're crippled, in a chair."

He nodded grimly.

"And, yeah," Elle said. "It's kind of terrible, and one day you get fed up with it, complain to Spock, or he notices, I'm not sure which one. Anyway, he mutinies, admiral-naps you, takes you to Talos IV, and you spend the rest of your life with what's-her-face. The other human. You die happy."

Pike was staring at her. "I think I just hallucinated," he said. "I heard you say Spock mutinies and takes me to Talos IV."

"Cuz I said that," Elle said.

"He would never."

Elle smiled softly. "You underestimate the depth of a Vulcan's loyalty," she said.

"I guess so," he said, stunned. He stared down at his clasped hands. "Living my life out with Vena," he said softly. "Not the way I thought it'd happen."

Elle leaned against his shoulder, trying to give him some grounding.

He wrapped an arm around her. "Thank you," he said. "Really."

-/\-

After that sobering conversation, Elle went to find Lt. Kirk. "Put me to work," she said.

"All right." He handed her a clipboard. "Inventory those packs, make sure they've got one of everthing on that list."

"Yes, sir."

"You're not in Star Fleet, you can call me Sam," he offered.

Elle wrinkled her nose. "That's so weird, I don't think so," she said.

He huffed a laugh. "Too polite for your own good?" he asked, startin to put together some sort of fancy tricorder.

Elle grinned. "Maybe."

He started running diagnostics on the tricorder. "Do you know me, in the future?" he asked.

She paused, kept her gaze focused no the pack in front of her. "Uhh."

"You know my brother," he said. "That's obvious. Do we ever meet?"

She poked at the pack. "Never got the chance," she said, trying to act casual. "I was on the ship with Captain Kirk, we only went to Earth a couple of times. I did meet your parents, and I met your youngest son. We're friends."

"Captain Kirk," Lt. Kirk echoed, still stuck on that first part. "Jimmy becomes captain of the Enterprise?"

Elle grinned. "Spoilers," she whispered.

"That's crazy, though, that'd make him, what the youngest starship captain ever?"

"Yes," Elle said proudly. "And best captain ever, in my biased opinion. Him and Spock make the best team ever."

Then the rest of her info registered, and Lt. Kirk blanched. "I have kids?" he exclaimed. "Wait, what?"

"Married and everything," Elle said.

"Okay, stop telling me stuff, my brain's gonna melt," he said. It wasn't two seconds later that he asked, "So my kid? He's a good kid?"

"The best," Elle promised. "Grows into a good man, lots of kids, every single grandkid is doing something amazing with their life. You'd be really proud of them."

He paused. "So I die, in the future. Before you get there."

Elle cleared her throat, silently cursing her verb tenses.

"I'm not dumb, Elle."

"I know, I know," Elle said. "I'm sorry."

"How do I die?"

Apparently this was just the day for traumatizing dead people. Elle steeled herself. "So, you guys moved to this colony, far out, to study something or other, and there were these supersized amoebas, and, they killed everybody in the colony except for Peter. Sorry."

He stared at her. "Oh. But my kid? He makes it?"

"He makes it," Elle promised.

"All right."

Another archaeologist, Lt. Kerby, entered the room. "Whoa, who died?" she asked, staring at their faces in concern.

"Me, apparently," Kirk joked weakly.

"Sorry," Elle said again.

"It's not your fault, Elle." He patted her on the back. "Let's focus on archaeology, and you'll be able to take some stories about his old man back to my future son. How about it?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Sounds good."

Lt. Kerby looked from one to the other. "I'm not gonna ask."

"Good idea," Kirk said.

-/\-

The Tagosian authority on the digsite was tall, stern, regal. Unimpressed by the Enterprise's humble A&A team, she looked over their equipment carefully, sniffing about 'power lines' and 'don't knock any relics.' The Tagosian stopped in front of Elle. "You bring a child here, to this venerated site?" she asked Lt. Kirk.

"She's an assistant," Lt. Kirk said, "highly qualified, very eager to learn. She is, after all, the next generation of historians and archaeologists, preserving the past of our various peoples."

The Tagosian sniffed. "And you promise to be careful?" she asked Elle.

Elle bowed respectfully. "I promise to treat this site with all the proper reverence and caution," she said. "I am honored to be here, to learn and to assist. My father was not able to attend this dig, and I hope to honor him through my work here."

"Hm." The Tagosian seemed pleased enough with that statement, and walked away to talk to Captain Pike about "ceremonial uncoverings".

Lt. Kirk shot Elle a thumbs-up. "Nice," he mouthed.

She grinned at him. Diplomacy, always diplomacy.

As far as working on the site went, it was pretty standard. Set up the camp, the monitors, the scanners, the readers, the sample kits, the tools, make sure everything's sterilized so it won't contaminate the ruins, set up an entry and exit to the ruins themselves, make sure everybody's got bodycams on and recording, make sure the snack table is set up and ready to go, make sure the coffee pot is full... by the time Elle and the two A&A yeomen finished all the tasks, the main team was already in the ruins and going trigger-happy with the holo-shots and the full-spectrum imaging.

Elle put on her dust-repellent boot covers, grabbed a scanner, and put a dust mask over her mouth and nose. "Good?" she asked.

Lt. Kirk waved her over. "Good. Come help me map this section of the ruins."

"Yes, sir."

They worked until lunch and went back to their base camp outside the ruins to eat a meal. "How long are you going to be here?" Lt. Kirk asked. "You do good work."

Elle shrugged. "However long Q decides to keep me here. I'm pretty sure they're almost done with whatever was going on, but my perception of time is all messed up."

"Hm. Well, if that Q of yours doesn't show up, you're hired."

"Thanks," Elle said dryly. "I'm pretty sure if I stay here I'll create more problems than I'll solve, but thanks all the same."

Sometime later, they went into the other set of ruins, the ones that went partially underground. If Captain Picard were here he'd be having the time of his life," she muttered, ducking under a low threshold. "I wonder if Q will let me take this tricorder..."

She walked past a wall slowly, making sure the bodycam could capture the entire mural in full depth and color. "It looks like a creation myth," she said, into the note-taking app. "Something about, an ark? Interesting to find ark mythology on the other side of the quadrant, and they're definitely not human in origin, so..."

There was a tiny blip in the scanners.

Elle stopped, checked. Took one step to the left. Another blip. Right there, the wall was half an inch thinner than the rest of the wall. She stepped forward, studied the bas-relief mural. It didn't look any different. Except for...

She blew, gently, on the ark motif that ran through that section. A seam appeared. A button-sized irregular circle seam. She glanced around. "Lt. Kirk?"

"You can just call me Sam," Kirk said, coming in from the other room.

"Can't," Elle said. "It's still weird. I found something. I think it's to open this section of the wall. I'm pretty sure there's a room behind here, but there's some sort of interference."

He looked at it for a long moment. "Well, the last time I touched something, I was almost killed by a musical egg, so I'm not gonna touch it. We need a heftier scanner."

Elle looked at it. Looked at the mural. "Chef Giotto's not here," she said. "He hasn't written the rules yet."

Lt. Kirk eyed her warily. "What?"

"There's a reason Q sent me here," Elle said, grinning with realization. "I'mma pull a Daniel Jackson." She pressed the button.

"Elle!"

With a groan of ancient rock, the wall began to move inwards, hinging on invisible seams. "Yes," Elle whispered, "secret rooms!"

Behind her, Lt. Kirk was calling in the rest of the team and recording everything from every angle. "This is not on any plans, nobody's ever found this," he muttered frantically into his notes. "Elle if you step into that room without scanning I will kill you."

Elle held up her hands in surrender. "That was my only chaos moment," she promised. "I just used up my whole quota. I will behave myself."

"Fine." He gestured. "Scan."

She scanned. "Clear," she said. "No energy readings, no moving parts, no life signs."

"Good." Lt. Kirk went through first, just in case. Nothing happened, and he waved her in. "...this is not the same language as out there. We need Uhura over here."

Elle stared at it, heart sinking. "Oh no, I know why outsiders get kicked out of the ruins."

"Why?" Kirk asked worriedly.

"This is the language of the Preservers." Elle turned on her heel, looking at the walls covered in print, and the suspiciously computer-like flat stone console in the middle of the room. "Oh boy. They're part of the diaspora in this galaxy."

"No, hang on, what are you talking about?" Lt. Kirk asked.

Elle grimaced. "Right. None of these discoveries have happened yet."

"What discoveries?" Lt. Kirk asked.

"The ones we make with Captain Kirk later," Elle said. "You haven't gotten there yet. Long story short, all the bipedal sentient species in this galaxy have been seeded here by what we call Preservers. They split up and recombined their DNA and planted us on appropriate worlds. That's why humans, Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, etc, can interbreed."

"That's crazy," Lt. Kirk said. "The Tagosians are not going to like that. They claim to be the superior species of the planet, with so many years on this planet that they can't even find any previous ruins... oh. Yeah that makes sense."

"Yeah," Elle said.

"Wonderful." He put an arm around her. "You get to tell the Tagosians."

"Can't," Elle said. "I'm not supposed to be here, I can't be on any paperwork."

He scowled at her.

The Tagosian Leader was not happy with their report. "That is impossible. We are natives. If the Federation's researchers are going to be this ridiculous and unrpofessional then we have no need of you here."

Captain Pike winced. "We are at your service," he started.

"And your service is no longer required. Obviously letting offworlders into our ruins was a bad idea. Thank you, Captain Pike. You and your charlatans may depart."

Pike inclined his head. "Understood." He lifted his comm. "Enterprise, beam us all up."

As soon as they materialized on the Enterprise, Elel started to laugh. "Oh, creation paradoxes, gotta love 'em!"

"No, no we don't," Pike said, ruffling her hair.

Elle grinned. "Don't worry, you'll get used to them. The Enterprise, all starships really, are prone to them."

"Fun," Pike deadpanned. "So, now that we've been kicked off the planet, how about dinner in the captain's mess?"

Elle wrinkled her nose. "Do you cook?"

Pike clutched at his chest. "That didn't make it into the history books? I am wounded. Deeply wounded."

"You're just gonna have to set the record straight," Kirk said. "Barbecue?"

"Barbecue."

-/\-

"How is this my life?" Elle muttered to herself quietly, watching the senior officers of the Enterprise interact over the best barbecued ribs she'd ever eaten in her life. It was, surreal, watching a smooth-faced Spock reply to a baby-faced Uhura about the history of the Vulcan lute, as if they'd never spoken about it. I guess they haven't ever talked about it, she decided.

"What do you think of the ribs?" Pike asked.

"I'm in love," Elle said. "I want to stay here with you guys. I mean, our chefs are good, but like, dude." She licked her fingers.

Pike laughed. "A compliment of the highest order."

Elle reached out and grabbed another bread roll to mop up the homemade leftover barbeque sauce. "Lt. Ortegas can you pass me the potatos, please?"

"Yeah, here you go." Lt. Ortegas cleared her throat. "So you're seventeen, what are you going to do? Go to Star Fleet Academy? Or go to a college?"

"No," Elle said dslowly, "I think my path lays on the Enterprise for a good few years yet. We're only in season 4, and there's the Dominion War to think about."

"War?" Pike asked.

"Yeah," Elle said, waving a hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm handling it."

"You're handling it," Number One said. "How?"

"Oh, I'm making allies with the Romulans and trying to ally the Cardassians without giving them the border worlds. I ain't having no native massacres."

Pike blinked. "Busy life for a teenager," he said. "You got friends? Hobbies?"

"Both," Elle said. "Friends my age. There's a lot of civilian families on the ship in the future."

"Sounds dangerous," La'an said, scowling.

"It can be," Elle said. "But our ship splits in half and sends the civilians out of danger if it needs to."

"Fascinating," Spock said. "A feat of engineering."

"Yeah."

There was a flash of light, and Q appeared in the room. "Ah, good, you're all here. Thank you for babysitting, I'll take her back now."

"Wait, I'm not done eating!" Elle protested.

"You can take a plate," Q told her. "If I leave you here any more time, the timeline will start to fracture. Do you have your stuff? Never mind." He gave a flamboyant bow. "Thank you, Captain Pike, for hosting this chaos-monger."

"Hey," Elle protested. "Let me say bye first, heathen!"

"I am a god of my own making," Q retorted. "Hurry up, I have things to do."

"More species to torment?" Elle sassed, and turned to give Uhura and Chapel hugs. "Bye, you guys are awesome, keep doing so." She gave Lt. Ortegas a high-five and La'an a respectful head nod. "You're awesome, I'mma look you up in the future, see what you do."

"Awesome."

Elle looked at Spock. "If you weren't a baby I'd hug you," she said. "Mene sakkhet ur-seveh, Spokh."

"Sochya eh dif," he intoned. "Your Vulcan accent is very good, by the way."

She grinned. "I know. You taught me." She grinned at Number One, and hugged Lt. Kirk. "Be good. Don't touch buttons you shouldn't touch."

He ruffled her hair. "Same to you, brat."

Elle turned to Captain Pike. "Sir. Thank you for letting me stay onboard."

"Thank you for giving me a glimpse of my future," he said, giving her a hug. "Stay safe out there."

She grinned. "Yes, sir." She looked at Q, who had an expression of unutterable boredom.

"Are you done being emotional?" he asked. He lifted his hand, and snapped his fingers.

There was a bright flash of light, and Elle was standing on the bridge of the Enterprise-D, a plate full of food in her hands, and an old style tricroder hanging from her shoulder. "Nice! Thank you!" she hollered into the cosmos.

"Elle?" Picard asked. "Where were you?"

"Where were you?" Elle asked.

"Sherwood Forest," Riker said. "It was hilarious. Where were you? Where did you get food? That smells really good."

Elle pulled it closer to herself. "Mine," she said. "I was on the Enterprise, for like, a whole day! How long were you guys gone?"

"Five hours, give or take," Riker said. "You weren't on the Enterprise, you disappeared from sensors."

Elle looked at the captain. Grinned apologetically. "So you know how offworlders were kicked out of the ruins of Tagus Three a hundred years ago?"

Picard squinted at her suspiciously. "What did you do?"

Elle grinned. "The original Enterprise under Captain Pike was here, in this spot. Q put me where I'd be perfectly safe and out of the way. I got to go to the ruins of Tagus Three. They were incredible." She held up the tricorder. "I've got all the readings, recordings, and notes, Captain."

Picard accepted the tricorder with reverent hands. "Elle..."

"You might have to rewrite your speech," Elle said. "Sorry." She looked down at her plate. "If you'll excuse me, captain, I have to go finish eating this. Captain Pike made this, did you know he's a really good cook? That reminds me, I gotta go yell at Spock." She left the bridge.

-/\-

As soon as the call connected, Elle held up a potato speared on a fork and pointed at the screen. "Spock. Do you have a sister?"

He winced. "At the time you asked me the second time, she had been gone for a decade. I no longer have a sister, Elle. That is true."

"From a certain point of view," Elle said, air-quoting aggressively. "I can't believe you didn't tell me! If I'd known Discovery was real... well, anyway, it's too late now. You were so young, Spock! And everybody was so cool! Wait, how do you remember that?"

"After you left us, the memories were there in my mind, as if they had never been gone," Spock said. "I looked at the mission reports, and your presence is not there. It's all in bland terms, presumably since the Tagosian authorities suppressed the information to preserve their narrative."

"Fascinating," Elle said. "I wonder if anyone else remembered later."

"Captain Pike did," Spock said gravely. "While we were transporting him to Talos IV, we spoke, briefly. He said he was glad that you were right, after all."

Elle smiled softly. "I'm glad," she said. "And Uhura? Chapel?"

"I assume the same thing happened to them," Spock said. "I did not ask."

"Oh." Elle rested her chin on her hand. "Okay. Thanks, Spock. I'm glad that somebody else rememebers and it's not just me."

Spock smiled with his eyes. "I'm glad you are returned safe," he said.

Elle straightened up. "Talk to you later?"

"Yes, Elle-kam."

Elle leaned back from the dark screen with a sigh. What a day. "Wait, hey, what happened to Vash?" she asked. "Is the summit meeting still on?"

Alexa answered her. "Vash has disappeared with Q, so who knows. And the summit meeting has been pushed off until tomorrow."

"Oh. Cool." Elle finished off her plate. "Man, I need to learn to cook."