A/N: This will include the trio from 'Attack of the Trekkie Trio', 'The Trio Broken', 'Destination: Unknown', and 'MASH 4077 Meets the Trio'. If you haven't read at least AOTTT, I would suggest reading it first so you can get a better grasp on the characters here. Romulan Empress owns AOTTT and TTB, and I own the last two. This will be a 'what if' story, like what if the Trekkie Trio had met as adults instead of teens? Here we go!

Mara shoved the door open in agitation, and slid down the cool wall onto the bench outside the OR to run a hand through her mussed hair. She didn't want to look in a mirror as she already knew what she would see. She would see a tired, old-looking woman with crow's feet around her eyes and blurry eyes that could hardly stay open. After operating for nearly 14 hours, she was exhausted. She had been on call for the whole week and she had been called in every single day/night without fail.

She leaned her head back against the wall and sighed. "Girl, you're 28, and you're already wanting to retire. What is wrong with this picture?"

"Mara!" a nurse called from down the hallway. Mara didn't bother lifting her head. It was Beth, a nurse who was always the one who called Mara from her bed. When Mara was alive, she had no problems with Beth, but when she was dead on her feet, like now, she could almost strangle her.

"You're needed in OR again," Beth said, looking over a clipboard. "What is it?" Mara asked, her eyes too heavy to lift. "Some kid busted his femur," Beth answered. Mara groaned. "I hate operating on kids," she mumbled as she forced herself up. "You're off after this case," Beth told her. "Fine, yeah, whatever," Mara growled as she banged the door open to OR.

.........................AN HOUR OR SO LATER....................

Mara stripped off her gloves. The operation they had just done was relatively simple; they merely put the femur back in place. Yet it was tiresome and took a while. She grabbed her purse from the doctor's lounge and exited the hospital without saying a word to anyone.

She glanced down at her green nurse's outfit and grimaced in distaste. Then she glanced up at the sky. As she didn't have a watch, she would have to guess what time it was. "Mm...I'd say 10 AM," she murmured to herself. "Good. I'm going to Starbucks, and then home to watch a movie, eat a pint of ice cream, curl up in a blanket, and sleep."

With these wonderful thoughts bouncing around in her head, she walked as briskly as possible to the Starbucks around the corner.

................AT STARBUCKS.................

Valerie glanced up from where she was waiting for her café as a woman walked in. She surveyed her with a careful eye. The woman had dark chestnut colored hair with streaks of blonde-not enough to look cheesy, but just enough to look real-and she was wearing a green outfit. She looked very exhausted and...probably old for her years, she supposed. 'Nurse', she thought to herself as she returned to her magazine.

She knew that she should be working on one of her cases, or on her latest book, but she couldn't help herself. The fact that a U.S. Senator was coming to the town was too interesting. She wondered what crap he was spreading around.

Mara walked to the counter and ordered her usual: double café mocha, which was by far her favorite drink. She went to sit down at a table by a woman who seemed deeply involved with a magazine with a U.S. senator on the front cover. 'Erik Black', it pronounced in bold colors. 'Hmm...' Mara thought to herself. 'Wonder what he'll do. Wonder if I'll meet him...' She looked the woman who was reading the magazine over. The woman had auburn hair that was wavy and long, but now was put up in a neat ponytail, and her eyes were an emerald green. She was dressed in a business suit, and had a briefcase beside her, along with a stack of loose papers.

Mara peered at one of the top papers. "Beyond the World's Barriers', it read, and had several paragraphs of writing in a very neat, curly hand-writing.

"Um, excuse me," Mara said to the woman. The woman put down her magazine and raised her eyebrow. " 'Beyond the World's Barriers'...are you writing a book?" The woman sat up straighter and smiled a bit. "Yes. I'm a freelance author, and a lawyer as well."

"Ah," Mara nodded. "If you don't mind my saying so, it seems very odd that a lawyer would write books in her spare time." The lawyer smiled wider. "Well...I'm not very normal. I'm extremely odd." Mara leaned back a little bit, digesting this information. "I...see," she said.

The waitress brought two cups over to the two tables, and put one down on each one and scurried off to return to the kitchen. Mara sniffed her drink and made a face. "I don't think this is mine," she said. "This isn't mine, either," the woman said. They glanced at each other, looked in their cups, and exchanged them. Each took a long drink and then sighed in satisfaction as the caffeine started taking effect.

"Mara East," Mara said, holding her hand out. "Valerie Shadow," the woman answered, shaking Mara's hand. "I take it you're a nurse?" Valerie asked Mara. "Yes," Mara answered. "I just had to want to save people's lives, and now look where it got me." Valerie laughed. "I've been on call all week, and haven't gotten more than twelve hours sleep in four days," Mara sighed. "So what's your book about?"

"It's about these three people who journey past the world's barriers," Valerie explained. "When I say the world, I mean the earth. They use their intelligence and work together to build a ship that can carry them across the galaxy within 30 days. And they embark on adventures together."

"Sounds interesting," Mara remarked, downing more coffee. "Who are the characters?" Valerie blushed slightly. "I actually put myself in it," she said. "And the other characters are Erik Black (merely a coincidence about the senator) and..." She gave Mara a strange look.

"What?" Mara asked. "Valerie Shadow, Erik Black, and Mara East," she whispered. Mara sat back in her seat with a thud. They sat in silence for a while, and finally looked at each other. "We never met before, did we?" Mara asked presently.

Valerie shook her head. "I don't think so," she answered. "Wow. That's a pretty big coincidence," Mara said. Valerie nodded in agreement.

Despite this strange happening of events, the two women got over it and began to talk more and more about themselves and their lives. They sat in the Starbucks for almost two hours just talking, until the manager told them they had to leave unless they were going to buy more coffee.

So, they exchanged phone numbers, and went their separate ways: Mara to her bed, and Valerie to her office and eventually writing desk.

Later that evening, when Mara had awoken from her nap, she curled up in her favorite chair alongside her cat, Snowflake, with cold chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and a steaming cup of hot chocolate to contrast while watching one of her favorite movies, 'An Affair to Remember' with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.

Just as they were debating about where to meet in six months, her phone jangled. Mara jumped, her spoon flying into the air, which startled Snowflake so much that he leaped down and hissed at the phone, his hair standing on end and his claws scratching her wood floors. Mara sighed, gasping for breath, and finally picked up the phone, irritated now because she figured it was Beth calling for her to come in again.

"Look, Beth, I have been on call all week long, and I refuse to come in now." There was silence on the other line for a while and Valerie's voice said, "Um...maybe I should call back later."

"Oh, no! Valerie, don't hang up. I'm sorry, I thought it was Beth calling for me to come in to the hospital," Mara said, picking up her spoon and trying to soothe Snowflake by letting him lick it.

"Oh, I see."

"So what do you need?" Mara asked, glancing at the spoon which by now was licked clean by Snowflake, and then licking it herself to make sure there wasn't anything left before getting another spoonful of ice cream.

"Oh, I just called to talk." "Oh." There was a pause until Mara said, "So...how was your day?"

"Rough," Valerie answered with a sigh. "I had cases all day long and only got to write a little bit. Did you know that the senator is coming in to look at the hospital?" "Really?" Mara asked with interest. "Why?"

"Probably just to make some publicity," Valerie answered. "I think he's supposed to be handing out toys or something." "Why is a U.S. senator even bothering?" Mara asked, taking a sip of hot chocolate and wincing as it scalded her throat.

"Who knows?" came Valerie's reply. "I don't really care. As long as he doesn't bug me, then I'm fine with him here." "I take it you aren't fond of politics?" Mara laughed softly, and petted Snowflake's white fur, as he had finally decided to forgive both her and the phone by curling up beside her and purring like a steam engine.

"Not in the least," Valerie answered. "Surely he can't be that bad," Mara said. "I'm sure he's a nice enough guy." "Yeah...maybe," Valerie said, clearly unconvinced.

The two switched subjects and talked for about two more hours before Valerie said that she had to go because she wanted to work on her book a little more, and Mara wanted to finish her movie before she went to bed again to prepare for another long day. And so they hung up.

Mara started the movie again, and cried all the way through the end. Then she fell asleep on the sofa after setting the alarm clock, with Snowflake on her chest and an empty container of ice cream lying on the floor.

Valerie wrote a few more chapters before falling asleep on her desk, forgetting that her briefcase still needed to be emptied.

.......................THE NEXT DAY.....................

Mara walked into the hospital feeling a little more alive than dead today, and feeling that all was right with the world. Everyone was dashing around in a hurry, cleaning different things, straightening other different things, et cetera.

"What's the rush?" Mara asked one of the nurses, who had stopped to get a drink of water. "The senator's coming!" she gasped, and dashed off again. "All this fuss for a senator?" Mara wondered. "What for?"

She put her stuff away and went up to her ward, where she did her normal duties until about 11:00 AM, and that was when the senator came. She was downstairs getting more penicillin, as they were out upstairs, when the senator entered. She glanced him over with a careless eye, and immediately understood why Valerie wasn't that psyched about him being here.

He looked like a perfectionist, someone who always did everything right, and smugly knew he was right. Mara rolled her eyes. She had met too many of his kind in college, and they had annoyed her to heck.

Just then, the medical supervisor rushed up to him and shook his hand and started saying something. Trust George to stick his foot in his mouth, Mara shook her head. As she got the penicillin and started heading upstairs, the senator came over to her. "Hello," he said pleasantly, sticking his hand out.

Mara juggled the penicillin enough to shake his hand, smile, and say hello, and then immediately started to walk upstairs. He followed persistently, dogging her footsteps.

"May I help you?" she turned around, her smile strained. He smiled. "You look like someone I once knew," he said. "Really. How fascinating. It couldn't be me, I've never known you," she said, starting to go upstairs again. "Mind if we have coffee later?" Erik asked. "I want to annoy you more."

Mara groaned. "You're a U.S. senator," she said to him. "Somehow, I don't think that senators annoy people." "This one does," Erik answered. "Tough," Mara replied, and walked quickly upstairs to escape his-annoying-presence.

..................ERIK'S PERSPECTIVE.............

As soon as he had walked in the hospital, Erik knew that that nurse was like one of the people he despised. Think they know everything, but they don't. He had no problem with annoying people who thought they were all that. He did it in every town; sometimes, however, the people who he chose to annoy actually turned out to be pretty good friends.

Yeah, yeah, so this was a strange way for a senator to behave. So what? If he wanted to get a little enjoyment out of being annoying to people, what the heck?

He smiled and pursued the nurse upstairs, where she refused to look at him.

......................LATER...................

Mara moaned. Why on earth would a senator decide to annoy her all day? It made absolutely no sense. He was a senator for pete's sake! Other people chose to annoy her as well, but he took the cake.

She dashed out of the hospital before he could call her "kiddo" one more time and ran to Starbucks like her life depended on it.

Erik was disappointed. Oh well, she'd be back tomorrow. And he could torment her more. He grinned sinisterly as he and the media walked out of the hospital.

A/N: Yes, yes, I know that the last part didn't really make sense, but I've just had one of the scares of my life (for Val, Erik, and Nats, who were on the phone when I had it, you'll understand), so my thoughts are a bit jumbled, and I wasn't actually sure how to make Mara and Erik meet and disagree, so I just did it this way. Before you flame me, realize that this story is unrealistic. It's meant to be that way. Deal with it. Erik, sorry if your character is out of character, but I don't know you that well, so forgive me. Nats, I'm sorry!! I'll put you in the next story, I swear!!

A/N2: The Star Trek-ness will come later on in the story. Forgive me!