McCoy soon gave Lexie the all clear to return to work, however Scotty told her to take the rest of the day off and he seemed like he wasn't going to argue about it. Lexie didn't wish to sit in her room doing nothing, so decided to head off to the ships swimming pool for a relaxing swim. It still amazed Lexie that there was an Olympic size pool on a Star Ship, but she was happy there was. She love to swim, it allowed her to take her mind off things. When she arrived, the pool was completely empty, which is the way she liked it. Lexie quickly got changed into her swim wear, which was a two part set of red and cream. Swimming was the only time Lexie couldn't care if her scar was showing, since not many people noticed it. Lexie looked at the water as it sparkled in the light before gracefully diving in. She completed several lengths of the pool before stopping to rest, she had forgotten how peaceful swimming was, the only sound being that of the water splashing around as she moved.
But despite the pools tranquillity, Lexie's mind was anything but calm. She was worried about what a certain part of her uncle's message meant, 'I will always find you.' Lexie knew there was no way of him getting to her, not while she was light years away from Earth. But, there was a part of her that wondered if she was truly out of his reach. Her uncle never said he would do something if he never intended on doing it. So, was he really going to find her? Or was he just trying to scare her? If the messaged was to scare her then it had worked, but even before that message Lexie was scared of him, feared him would be a better way of putting it. Lexie splashed her face, trying to clear her mind, but to no avail. So instead, she took a deep breath and dived to the bottom of the pool and just sat there, trying to clear her mind because if she didn't do it soon then it would start to show and she would then have to tell people about her uncle, which was something she didn't ever want to do.
Several minutes had past and Lexie was still sitting under the water, her eyes closed almost as if she was meditating. When she suddenly heard someone else dive into the pool, opening her eyes quickly she looked up to see someone swimming above her, so Lexie swam up to the surface. When her head emerged from the water, she was face to face with Uhura who screamed slightly. "I'm sorry Nyota, I didn't mean to scare you." Uhura swam slowly over to the side to slow her heart rate, "It's alright Lexie, I didn't see you. Where were you?" Lexie swam up next to her. "I was at the bottom of the pool, trying to clear my head." Uhura smiled softly as she pulled herself up to sit pool side. "Something on your mind?" She asked, Lexie nodded. "Well, if you wanna talk about it, I'm here." She stated, Lexie smiled. "Thanks, Nyota. I'm just thinking if I made the right choice." Uhura tilted her head, "In what way?" Lexie laid back so she was just floating on the water.
"About becoming an Engineer. I studied every sector at the Academy and could have gone on to do anything. Security, Helmsman, Navigator, you name it I could have done it. But I chose to be an Engineer." Uhura kicked her feet lightly in the water, "What was your reason for wanting to join Star Fleet?" She asked. "I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps, he was a Star Fleet Engineer but…" Lexie stopped, Uhura smiled softly. "You don't think you can live up to his legacy, right?" Lexie swam over and sat next to her and nodded sadly. She then felt a hand on her shoulder, "You will Lexie, you're a great Engineer. I know for a fact that your father would be very proud of you and he would be proud of you no matter what path you chose to walk, but I bet it would have melted his heart to know that you chose to walk the same path as he once did." Lexie could feel tears forming in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. "Thanks, Nyota, I needed to hear that." The two girls hugged before they both jumped back into the water.
The two of them stayed in the pool for another hour before deciding to head off to get some food. They were walking past the transporter room when suddenly the doors slid open and out charged some sort of giant lizard. Lexie pushed Uhura out of the way as it lunged for them before taking off down the hall. Then an officer came running out of the doors, Lexie turned to face him. "Are you alright?" The officer nodded, "Yeah, I think so." "What the hell was that?" Questioned Uhura, "I have no idea, it just suddenly appeared on the transporter." Lexie turned round. "Nyota, alert the Captain. I'm going after that thing." Uhura just stared but nodded before running off, while Lexie took off after the creature. It almost looked like a Komodo dragon, but much bigger. Lexie wanted to find it before anyone else did or before it attacked anyone, it was probably confused as to where it was. She must have been running for five minutes before she heard a commotion from down the hall, knowing it was probably the creature she headed off to investigate.
Sure enough it was the creature, it had made its way into one of the cargo bays, where a group of Security Officers had cornered it. Lexie could see that the Officers had already tried to stun the creature as she could see phaser burns on its scales. Not wanting to see it get hurt she ran in to the room, "Stop! Don't fire!" One of the officers turned to face her, "It's dangerous!" He yelled, Lexie ran over and stood between the men and the creature. "No it's not, it's just scared. It doesn't mean us any harm." She cried back as she turned around. Lexie could now clearly see that the creature was in fact a very large Komodo dragon, she knelt in front of it so not to look threatening. "It's alright, I know you don't mean us any harm. You're just scared and unsure." The lizard stuck out its tongue and hissed, but Lexie could tell that it wasn't a sign of aggression. But from behind her she could hear phasers being moved and their setting being changed. "Lower your weapons!" She ordered, the security officers were only Ensign, therefore, Lexie had the right to give them an order, since she was a Lieutenant. However, the men didn't follow it. "I said lower your weapons! That's an order!" Lexie yelled again, but still the men didn't obey.
Just then in ran Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty who just looked on in amazement. "Lexie?" Scotty questioned, she turned to face them with a small smile. "Captain, it doesn't want to harm us. It's just afraid that's all, it was somehow beamed aboard the ship." The lizard moved closer to her, so the security officers moved their phasers too. "Do I need to order you a third time to lower your phasers!" Lexie cried out angrily, if one of them fired off a shot she would make sure they would pay. Kirk glared at the officers, "Lieutenant Smith has given you an order, so do it." They quickly put away their phasers, clearly they were afraid of upsetting their Captain. The lizard then nudged Lexie's hand gently, it was clear that it knew she wasn't going to hurt it. "You're alright, we'll find a way to send you back home." Kirk had dismissed the Security officers after a few chosen words, then he walked over to Lexie, closely followed by the others.
He then noticed the lizard run behind Lexie as if trying to hide, "It's ok, these guys won't hurt you. I promise." Lexie said reassuringly as she stroked the lizard on the head, which was something she never believe she would ever do. "Scotty, how do we get him back to his home?" Asked Kirk, "I can identify the coordinates from the transporter as to where the lad came from, I then will be able to send him back, but it will take a wee while." McCoy had a feeling he was going to say that. "Well, where are we going to put him for the time being?" He asked. "We could put it in sick bay with you Bones." Joked Jim. "Hell no Jim! I'm a Doctor, not a dam vet!" Lexie chuckled quietly, "There's no problem with the lad staying in the transporter room while I work on finding the coordinates Sir." Scotty stated. "Fine, but I want you to stay with him Lexie. The little guy seems to trust you." Lexie nodded, then left along with the lizard and Scotty to head back to the transporter room.
Scotty sat at the transporter controls working away, while Lexie was sitting on the floor keeping their new lizard friend happy. Despite it looking dangerous the Komodo turned out to be as soft as a kitty, Lexie was sure that it wouldn't hurt anything. She had also chose to call it Komodo, since it seemed to respond to that. "I hope you're not thinking about asking the Captain if you can keep him lassie? The lads not exactly a wee thing." Scotty remarked as he could see that Komodo was lying on his back while Lexie was giving him a belly rub. "Don't worry Scotty, I'm not. He needs to go home to where he belongs, it wouldn't be right to take him away. Besides, he's not exactly a dog who you would expect people to have as a pet." Scotty smiled as he continued searching, it wasn't long until he found what he was looking for. "Right, I've got the coordinates. All I need to do is to input them and we'll be ready to go, of course it will take several minutes for the transporter to register the coordinates, so you get to spend some more time with ya new friend Lex." Scotty stated as he pinned in the coordinates on the screen, then got up and joined Lexie on the floor, alongside their visitor. Komodo turned his attention to Scotty when he sat down and proceeded to wander over to him, almost asking for the Engineer to pet him. Nervously, he raised his hand up to the lizard's head and gently stroked it, it felt strange to be stroking something with scales instead of fur, but in an odd way it felt relaxing.
"I never thought I would ever be petting what appears to be a tiny dinosaur." Lexie giggled quietly, "He basically is a tiny dinosaur, Komodo dragons are one, if not the largest lizard on Earth." She told him, Scotty smiled as the lizard moved away from him and lied down next to Lexie, head resting on her lap. "You know, it was kinda stupid to approach him in the cargo bay lass." Scotty pointed out; Lexie knew he was right. "I know, but I knew he wouldn't hurt me. I could tell by the look in his eyes." Scotty was amazed, "You have a way with animals then?" He asked, Lexie nodded. "Yep, it's difficult to explain but, I always seem to understand how they feel. It came in handy at the Academy when one of the students thought it would be funny to beam several animals from the San Francisco Zoo into one of the auditoriums, it took several hours to calm them down and then to return them." Scotty proceeded to ask what animals were there, Lexie replied happily. "Oh, you know. A Lion, ostrich, rhino, a group of ring-tailed lemurs, and a flock of scarlet macaws." Scotty just blinked, three of the five were fine (in a way) but the remaining weren't. "You mean to say that you confronted a lion and rhino." Lexie just nodded in response; Scotty just blinked. He decided not to reply with words, since he didn't want to know what other crazy things Lexie had done.
Finally, the Komodo was sent back to its home after it said goodbye to the two Engineers and after a little persuasion since he didn't really want to go, it seemed that the reptile had grown to like the Enterprise, Scotty had asked several of his Engineers to sort out the problem with the transporter, without beaming aboard any more reptilians or anything else for that matter. The two of them then headed up to the bridge to report to the Captain of their visitors departure from the ship, they soon entered onto the bridge and a familiar voice called out. "Lexie!" She turned to see Delta standing on top of Spock's station, his eyes brightly illuminated. She smiled as she walked over to him, "Hello you, I hope you've been behaving?" She asked picking him up gently, Spock turned his chair around to face her. "He has been well behaved Lieutenant. I have completed my evaluation; I am very impressed." Lexie felt her cheeks blush with embarrassment, "Thank you Commander." She then wandered over to join Scotty beside the command chair, in which the Captain was sat.
"Did you managed to send our guess back home yet Scotty?" Kirk asked, "Aye Sir, the little guy was beamed home a few moments ago, even if he was reluctant to go." Scotty answered, Kirk stared blankly at him. "You mean it didn't want to leave?" Scotty nodded slowly, "Lexie managed to persuade it to return home Captain, she has a way with handling animals." Kirk turned to face the other Engineer who still had her robotic friend in her arms, "That's good then, you did the right thing Lex. It must have been hard to say goodbye?" Lexie smiled softly. "In a way it was Sir, but I knew sending him back was the best thing for him. Besides, I don't think Star Fleet would be too happy with us having him aboard." Kirk laughed, along with Scotty. It was then that Chekov turned away from his station, "Captain, may I ask what 'guest' you're referring too?" Kirk smirked, "Just a Komodo Dragon which accidentally got beamed aboard somehow, nothing to worry about." Chekov just stared blankly at his Captain, along with Sulu who had been listening to the conversation. The two of them had heard of many things being beamed aboard accidentally, the last thing was some sort of scorpion, wolf, wasp thing, so not the cutest looking creature ever. Thankfully, they managed to send it back relatively quickly, so a Komodo Dragon was a step down.
Kirk thanked Lexie once again for her help with their guest, which she simply told him that it was no big deal. She had also tried to convince Scotty to let her get back to work, but he was having none of it. He told her that he still stood by his earlier statement of her taking the rest of the day off, and since she was interrupted by an unexpected reptilian. Lexie wasn't going to argue with him, especially in front of the bridge crew since they would all probably agree with the Scotsman. So instead made her way back to her quarters with Delta, who was curious as to what a 'Komodo Dragon' was, since he had never heard of one. He waited until they were back in Lexie's room before speaking, "Lexie, what's a Komodo Dragon?" He questioned. Lexie smiled as she headed over to her computer, she sat in the chair and place Delta down on the desk. "I'll show you. Computer, show me a picture of a Komodo Dragon from Earth." Lexie asked, the computer switched on and within a few seconds it was showing them a photo of the reptile. "One of those was on the ship?!" Delta cried; Lexie nodded. "Yep, the poor thing was beamed aboard by a transporter glitch, but Scotty managed to send him back home." Delta just couldn't come to terms with how big it looked.
"It's gigantic!" He exclaimed, "They look bigger in real life, believe me, but despite their size the one which was on board was very friendly." Delta just blinked in amazement, how could something so gigantic be friendly? But he wasn't going to question it, he just took Lexie's word for it. Instead, he chose to go and rest, he was so tired. Lexie couldn't blame him; he had been with Spock for a while. She was trying to figure out what to do when her computer gave her an alert, "You have a message." Lexie asked the computer to display the message, instantly she wish she hadn't. Once again she felt her heart begin to race and her breathing speed up, it was another message from her uncle, but this one worried Lexie even more than the last one. It simply read, 'I'm coming for you.' Just what did that mean? Was he really coming for her? No that was impossible, she was light years away from Earth, there was no way for him to reach her. Or at least she hoped. Lexie switched off the computer and simply went to bed, knowing if she stayed awake she would only keep re-reading the message over and over again.