Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 16 of Never Again. I want to thank everyone who has left reviews for this story. It does mean a lot to me that you guys are enjoying this story. I do apologize for having a hard time with writing Vulcan characters, but I am trying my best with writing them. I hope that you guys enjoy this next part. We're getting closer to the end of this story. I hope that I don't fail you guys with this story. Without further ado Chapter 16. ENJOY!

Chapter 16

Spock, L'hai, and Jim entered the outpost there that was on the planet. The two vulcans were rather silent as Keenser was heard speaking to someone in another language.

"Hello!" Jim called out to the alien that was speaking.

Keenser walked up to the three of them giving them a look before leading them through the outpost into the middle of it where Scotty was working on something. Keenser got the attention of the man in red.

"What? You realize how unacceptable this is?" Scotty said his accent thick belittling the three of them that had arrived.

"Fascinating." Spock spoke out looking around.

"What?" Jim questioned turning his attention to Spock.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're just doing your job, but could you not come a wee bit sooner? Six months I've been here, living off Starfleet protein nibs and a promise of a good meal. And I know exactly what's going on here, okay. Punishment, isn't it? Ongoing, for something that was clearly an accident." Scotty complained even more looking at the three of them.

"You are Montgomery Scott." L'hai said her body jittering in happiness.

"You know him?" Jim questioned looking at the two Vulcans.

"Aye, that's me. You're in the right place. Unless there's another hard-working, equally starved Starfleet officer around." Scotty said, looking around at the group.

"Me." Keenser said, looking up at Scotty.

"Keenser, shut up! You don't eat anything. You can eat like a bean, and you're done. I'm talking about food. Real food. But, you're here now, so thank you. Where is it?"

"You are, in fact, the Mister Scott who postulated the theory of transwarp beaming." Spock said, moving forward looking at him.

"That's what I'm talking about. How'd you think I wound up here? I had a little debate with my instructor on the issue of relativistic physics and how it pertains to subspace travel. He seemed to think that the range of transporting something like a, like a grapefruit, was limited to about a hundred miles. I told him that I could not only beam a grapefruit from one planet to the adjacent planet in the same system, which is easy by the way, I could do it with a lifeform. So, I tested it on Admiral Archer's prized beagle."

"Wait, I know that dog. What happened to it?" Jim questioned as he looked at Scotty, his brow raised.

"I'll tell you when it reappears. I don't know. I do feel guilty about that." Scotty said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"What if I told you that your transwarp theory was correct? That it is indeed possible to beam onto a ship that is traveling at warp speed?" Spock questioned looking at Scotty.

Scotty's brow raised as he looked at Spock. "I think if that equation had been discovered, I'd have heard about it."

"The reason you haven't heard about it, Mister Scott, is because you haven't discovered it yet."

L'hai's lips quirked a bit as he heard her brother banter with the Scottish man.

"I'm a, uh, what... Are you from the future?" Scotty questioned looking at the three of them.

"Yeah. They are, I'm not." Jim said, shifting a bit.

"Well that's brilliant. Do they still have sandwiches there?"

L'hai let out a breath. "We would've brought sandwiches Mr. Scott, but we were banished here as well. I do apologize that we don't have food with us."

Scotty let out a frustrated breath shaking his head.

STARTREK

Scotty let out a breath as he showed them the transporter area. "Well, she's a wee bit dodgy. Shield emitters are totally bandjacked, as well as a few other things. In you go. So, the Enterprise has had its maiden voyage, has it? She is one well endowed lady. I'd like to get my hands on her ample nacelles, if you'll pardon the engineering parlance."

Jim winced a little bit as he moved towards the transporter area.

"Except, the thing is, even if I believed you, right, where you're from, what I've done, I don't, by the way, you're still talking about beaming aboard the Enterprise while she's traveling faster-than-light, without a proper receiving pattern." Scotty's eyes went to Keenser. "Get off there! It's not a climbing tree." He looked over at the two Vulcans. "The notion of transwarp beaming is like, trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse. What's that?"

Spock handed a paper to Scotty. "Your equation for achieving transwarp beaming."

Scotty looked at it and mumbled a bit. "Imagine that. It never occurred to me to think of space as the thing that was moving."

"You're coming with us, right?" Jim questioned looking at the two Vulcans.

"No, Jim. That is not our destiny." Spock said, shaking his head.

"Your dest... He... the other Spock and the other L'hai are not going to believe me. Only you can explain what's gonna happen."

"Under no circumstances, can they be aware of our existence. You must promise me this."

"You're telling me I can't tell you that I'm following your own orders. Why not? What happens?" Jim questioned looking at the two of them.

"Jim, this is one rule you cannot break. To stop Nero, you alone must take command of your ship."

"How? Over your dead body?"

L'hai let out a soft chuckle making Spock look at her before turning his attention back to Jim.

"Preferably not. However, there is Starfleet regulation six-one-nine. Six-one-nine states that any command officer who's emotionally compromised by the mission at hand, must resign from said command."

"So, so you're saying that I have to emotionally compromise you guys?"

"Jim, I just lost my planet. I can tell you, I am emotionally compromised. What you must do is get me to show it."

"Aye then, Laddie. Live or die, let's get this over with." Scotty said, clasping his hand on Jim's shoulder.

The two men entered the transporter areas.

Keenser attempted to join the two of them, but Scotty pushed him out.

"You cannae come with me. Go on."

"You're coming back in time, changing history, it's cheating." Jim said, looking at Spock and L'hai."

"A trick I learned from an old friend."

L'hai and Spock both did the Vulcan salute to Jim. "Live long and prosper."

The two men transported away and Keenser whimpered at what had happened.

L'hai looked over at her brother. "You really think that he'll overthrow you to become Captain?"

"I am certain that he will do so."

"And you can only hope that the younger version of me doesn't get involved?"

"With what the younger me did, I think the younger version of you wasn't too happy."

L'hai let out a soft breath. "Well we can only hope." She admitted softly as she crossed her arms.

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This is the end of Chapter 16. I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. I tried my best with trying to write this chapter out, but I kinda stuck with the movie in this section to kind of keep it moving as best I could. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Reviews help me keep going when it comes to writing. I will update next week with a new chapter hopefully. Until next time.