Augment Gothic 3

Ten Forward. U.S.S. Enterprise.

A few weeks after Sarek had left the ship, unfortunately too suddenly for us to have had that afternoon tea, I was finally starting to adjust to living in the future. I now had a much clearer idea of what I wanted to do with my life in this new universe and time, and it had all started when Data had given me some of my things from my old life.

Apparently that trader guy who had found my pod hadn't just decided to keep me on display, he'd also taken all of my possessions, which had seemingly been kept with my body. Centuries old random things and pieces of technology were worth a lot to some people and centuries old relics from an alternate universe were even more valuable and desirable.

The trader's ship had been impounded and everything that was determined to be stolen had been returned to its rightful owners, and that included my stuff, but I'd had no use for it so I decided to sell most of it off. I'd sold nearly everything after the Enterprise had arrived at Betazed for an important trade conference; there had been many legitimate business people from all over the Federation and they'd offered me small fortunes for my stuff. A small bidding war had even started up driving the price up. So I now had enough gold pressed latinum to make me feel like a rich man.

However, I wasn't just going to hoard this new found wealth, I had big plans for it, and ideas that needed a lot of resources to see come to fruition. My schemes were many, and should things go well, I'd be a very wealthy man in time. Not that money alone was my motivation, I also wanted to prove to everyone that augments could be successful in life without harming others.

I'd started by designing, with Data's considerable help it went much faster, things like advanced body armour, personal shields, and weapons meant specifically for fighting the Borg. Not that the last one went anywhere, because as it turned out the Borg had been destroyed a long time ago in this universe. That was actually an indication that while I was in a Star Trek universe, it wasn't exactly the same one I'd watched in the shows. So far my future knowledge was proving to be mostly good, but I would have to be on the lookout for other differences like this one.

I'd gotten the full story from Guinan; according to her the Borg in this universe had never had any kind of empire. They had been nomads who lived on their giant cubes and they'd gone around attacking planets that possessed advanced technology, but they didn't assimilate people. They'd just scooped up the tech that they'd wanted and killed everyone else, leaving lifeless planets behind. Also, according to the bartender, while the Borg had mostly destroyed her race and her planet, they had been stopped by an alliance of even more advanced races who'd finally realized just how dangerous the Borg actually were upon seeing Guinan's people being destroyed. Which meant the end of season three was going to be very dull I figured. Or maybe everything else would be moved up a year? Who knew.

With there being no reason to design guns (meant specifically for Borg drones each with their own personal shielding), since there were energy weapons that were not only legal to own, but would also do far more damage, I'd then focused on creating an advanced body armour. From what I'd learned so far, the many species of the alpha quadrant rarely used it. I'd discovered that while the stuff did exist, in a primitive fashion, the humans here, for example, didn't use it because the primary purpose of Starfleet was peaceful exploration, making friends with alien races, and all that good hippy stuff. I suppose the primary reason they didn't wear any sort of armour, even if it was a good idea, was that it projected an image of hostility. Or would make Starfleet appear militaristic.

Which made more sense than it might appear. These people were, at heart, more explorers and scientists than soldiers. Sure, Starfleet was structured like a military organization, with a similar rank and command hierarchy, but in truth the defense of the Federation was a secondary objective for them. They didn't think about going out of their way to protect themselves from the people they met as they fundamentally wanted to trust them.

That seemed very foolish to me, especially with the amount of violent conflict they found themselves in regularly, but it wasn't as if people from my society, who committed violent crimes on each other, went around day-to-day wearing body armour and carrying weapons either. Those that did regularly carry weapons tended to be either criminals or police or military. So it wasn't fair to judge.

The downside for me was that most unshielded body armour was useless against phasers and disruptors because if those weapons were set to a high enough setting they were capable of entirely vaporizing a human body. It took around three gigajoules to entirely vaporize a person and that was more than enough to completely melt 5,000 pounds of steel, so no type of unshielded body armour could protect a person from a phaser set on maximum, though it would delay things a bit.

However, that also didn't make wearing the stuff pointless, as while a phaser set on vaporise could kill me no matter what I wore, it was possible to create armour that could prevent from me from being stunned or even killed by a low to medium power shot. Even during outright war, soldiers of this time rarely set their weapons that high given how quickly it would deplete the weapon's power cell. Plus, the armour would still be useful in dealing with stabbing weapons or less advanced projectile weapons. I also had vague plans to make the armour fully airtight with a corresponding retractable facemask and independent air supply and recycler. That would give me protection from poisonous gasses and from being spaced. Ideally the armor would detect a poison or sudden decompression and automatically deploy the full armor, but that would require something akin to a virtual intelligence control system with its own sensor suite. That was a long way off.

The expense was another issue and a big part of why body armor wasn't standard among this quadrant's armed forces. Many of the materials could not be replicated, and had to be mined or refined the old fashioned way, but I could afford to have something custom made just for myself. Thankfully for me, Data, who was training me when off-duty to use modern technology, was willing to help design this body armour as nothing more than an interesting intellectual exercise. The guy didn't sleep and was an amazing teacher and designer, so he was a Godsend.

What was even more useful, especially when used in conjunction with body armour, was a personal energy shield. The power and material requirements for such devices were staggering, and even the resource rich Federation could never afford to mass produce the devices for their people, but again, just making one, while expensive, wasn't impossible. The wealthy trader who'd kept me in my pod had possessed a personal shield of his own so me having one wouldn't be impossible. A personal shield would allow me to survive even those high power phaser/disruptor shots meant to vaporize me. The shield and the armour together would grant me multiple levels of protection.

Another cool thing I was working on, again with the help of a certain android, was making swords with advanced Trek metals. The Klingons already did this to some degree, those Bat'leths were not made from common metals, but humans had never tried to recreate medieval weapons with the better materials technology this time offered. I was so looking forward to finding out if we could build a power sword like those in Warhammer 40K or a sword with disruption field technology.

"I was hoping you'd behave yourself," a female voice said with a smile in her voice.

Slowly I put down the padd I'd been typing on, which I could do now thanks to my very thorough and comprehensive lessons with Data, and I turned to see both Deanna Troi and Commander Riker who were standing next to me.

"I didn't do anything," I protested, somewhat petulantly.

No one at the party, which was celebrating the end of the successful trade conference, had even spoken to me for more than an hour. The Betazoids didn't seem to like me very much, because as it turned out I had some sort of aggressive barrier around my mind that prevented my thoughts from being read. I understood it was quite jarring for even their unconscious mental probes to run headlong into it, but I had no idea if this was an augment thing or not as no other Khan-era augments were around anymore for the Betazoids to try to scan.

"Hold on, is this about the pig men?" I asked. "I didn't lay a hand on them, and they started it!"

I'd just threatened the group of pig men with violence so that they'd stop throwing their endless stream of insults at me, but both Riker and Deanna looked shocked.

"What?" I asked.

I figured I must have done something wrong to offend their delicate sensibilities.

"You can't go around calling them that, its highly offensive," Deanna told me.

They'd done worse.

"As I understand it insulting people is part of their culture. And, besides, one of the Andorians called me 'pink skin,'" I informed them. "So why can't I call them whatever I want?"

Neither of them had an answer to that it seemed, so they changed the subject and invited me to a poker game that was taking place in a couple of days. I remember several episodes from the show which included this senior officer poker game.

"So you play poker with an android who could count every card with ease, an empath who can read everyone's emotions, and a guy with a sophisticated visor that almost certainly lets him see through your cards. Is that right?" I asked Riker once he had told me who would be playing. "Because that seems pretty unfair".

The commander didn't seem worried.

"It's just a friendly game; no would would cheat," Deanna assured me, "as I'm sure you wouldn't".

Oh, I would, if only real money was involved. I'm pretty sure they didn't even play for Federation credits. Heathens!

"Well, I have to make a living somehow," I said. "Maybe I can gamble my way to a fortune".

I might have to since I'd already sold everything other than my leather jacket and belt, and wouldn't sell those because no one made things out of cow hide anymore. I'd found out that most meat was replicated these days, and besides, I was sure wearing a dead animal was freaking out some of the Federation types. That just made me want to keep wearing my leather even more. Now that I thought about it, did cows even still exist on Earth? With all the wars Earth experienced they may have gone extinct. I'd have to look it up.

"You'll find a job," Riker promised. "When we get to Earth you'll have a whole world of possibilities in front of you".

Now that I wasn't so sure about.

"Somehow I doubt it," I stated. "I'm not allowed to serve in Starfleet or practice medicine, or hold any government job. It's prejudiced and I thought all of you guys were so beyond that kind of thing".

Which was a real downer because the Federation government pretty much ran everything. Even the news service, which I disliked as it meant there was no real freedom of the press. But, again, maybe this was just a mistaken idea I had from the shows and there were more news sources that just didn't make it in an actual episode.

"You're misrepresenting the situation," Riker said. "In your time there were performance enhancing drugs used by athletes, right?"

I nodded. Doping was pretty well known.

"Someone who used those drugs wasn't allowed to compete against the people who had chosen to play fairly," Commander Riker explained. "It's not that different now, only it's genetic engineering rather than steroids".

Except it wasn't the same thing, not at all.

"What a ridiculous argument, Commander. There is a very big difference between using illegal performance enhancing drugs and someone who was genetically engineered. The biggest and most fundamental difference is that the genetically engineered, who are often changed at or before birth or as very young children by others, like their parents, didn't choose to be the way they are," I argued. "People abusing drugs to gain an edge over others in competition themselves made a conscious choice, knowing of the illegality of it, it was not made for them, and they have to rightfully deal with the consequences of that choice".

In cases of genetic engineering in this time it was the parents who often had made the choice, and it was their kids who suffered for it later in life when it was discovered, assuming the unintended negative consequences weren't discovered nearly right away.

"You have to make a stand somewhere," Commander Riker said. "If we allowed augments into the most prestigious positions, you'd eventually create a kind of genetically engineered arms race among ambitious parents".

Which could lead to disaster as not all the genetically engineered ended up better off. In fact, most didn't and those unfortunate souls that survived complications could barely function in normal society. I'd seen that in a few DS9 episodes. I was very lucky not to have ended up as one of those failures, especially with the level of genetic engineering that had been done on me. The fact that it had been done on me as an adult made it even more miraculous that I was as normal as I was. Centuries past the era of Khan and the augments of Earth that level of genetic engineering was still a feat well, well beyond this time's science, but for some reason no one really remarked on it. It was really incredibly strange.

"What about the Vulcans then?" I asked. "Why can a Vulcan serve in Starfleet, when they are stronger, smarter and more than most Augments?"

Granted, augments at my level were stronger than Vulcans, but I was a special case as I was the only Khan-era augment around. Most 'improvements' people made genetically these days were rather minor, one or two things, not the full overhaul.

"Because they're wiser than humans," Deanna said. "Although there are those who would debate the issue," she allowed.

Wiser?! What the fuck was that about? Perhaps we would have talked more, but Ambassador Troi, Deanna's mother, suddenly slapped a Ferengi.

"Oh, so the ambassadors are allowed to hit people," I said, "but when I insult someone its rude?!"

Prejudice just sucked.

(Line Break)

Ten Forward. U.S.S. Enterprise.

Hours later I had discovered that while Romulan Ale was my new favourite drink, Blood Wine rated a close second, if only because it felt as if I could actually get drunk off the stuff. Plus it was legal and thus much easier to obtain.

In fact, I already might have gotten a little tipsy because now I was sitting at a table with four Klingons, three of which I had already beaten up back when I'd first arrived on the Enterprise.

The fourth was Worf, and while he was dishonored officially, the Klingons who had come for the trade conference (because they'd been ordered to not because they'd wanted to) seemed to find Worf to be good company. Maybe it was a lack of options?

At some point after I'd started drinking this Blood Wine I'd somehow ended up arm wrestling all the Klingons and I'd won! Now only Worf remained to challenge me. I took the time in between matches to glance around the lounge and found that a handful of the patrons were seemingly transfixed at the sight of a human who dared (or was stupid enough) to match his strength against the ship's Chief of Security.

I moved to sit across from Worf and then I placed my fist within his. When Worf called out "DAH!" the challenge had begun. Immediately I felt his arms tighten up as he put all his strength into defeating me. For a moment it looked as if I would be defeated, but then Worf began to lose his advantage as my super human strength easily countered his alien muscles. Ever-so-gradually, and with pretend great effort, I began to win. It took a while as I dragged it out, letting him win for a bit and then surging back, but the Klingon found his bare knuckles slamming with the crack into the table when I got bored with it.

Rather than roar in outrage, as the other Klingons had, Worf simply sat silent and glared at me through his sweat-dampened hair. He seemed disappointed, but not truly angry. Did he realize I was playing with him? I kind of hoped he did!

"You have great strength," he then said. "Yet you do not have the heart of a warrior".

Given that I wasn't a warrior, and didn't really consider myself that way, this didn't bother me all that much. That could change in the future though.

"Humans know nothing of combat," Worf then said to me. "In your time, guns and bombs fought your wars. There is no honour in overcoming an enemy from a far away place of safety where you cannot see the defeat in their eyes as they look upon you in death".

Given that I'd not fought in any wars and my combat experience was non-existent, I couldn't really argue against that, yet I tried due to my pride. Humanity had a long bloody history of warfare, though, we knew a lot about combat and war, maybe too much.

"You saw me on the holodeck," I reminded him. "I know how to fight".

I'd beaten his program even while still unfamiliar with my new body's capabilities, granted doing so had gotten me hurt, but I'd still won and I was stronger than even Worf. For someone who'd never even gotten in a schoolyard brawl, I'd say that that was pretty damn amazing!

"Human fighting techniques are crude and flawed," the Klingon stated, "you fight with no order."

I was thinking that Bruce Lee might have had a few words to say about that. However, the Klingons would have absolutely no idea who that guy was so I didn't mention him. Speaking of, maybe I should do some martial arts training programs on the holodeck. There were many extremely deadly and effective martial arts on Earth from my time that would be perfect for my newly enhanced body and strength.

"Unlike you I was never trained to fight," I pointed out. "And how's your way any better?"

To me the Klingons weren't a noble culture with rich traditions, they were barbarians who would kill each other for the most stupid of things. Not that humans couldn't be just as bad, or worse, and perhaps that was why I was starting to take offence at his words.

"For Klingons there are many levels of martial combat," he told me. "When a true Klingon warrior fights, his motion is like a song sung of a past battle with each action flowing one into the next. It is a song that will be sung for generations to come, but one such as yourself could never find the discipline to master the warrior's way".

Now I was getting annoyed.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" I shot back. "That I'm impatient? That I'm stupid?"

I wasn't done yet.

"You don't even know me!" I shouted. "You know nothing about who I am or what I've been through".

Worf leaned in closer.

"For one thing there is your coat," he told me. "You wear the hide of a beast, but you did not kill it yourself".

I had other reasons for wearing my leather jacket.

"My coat is a tie to my past and to my universe," I explained. "It's one of the few things left of a world that might no longer exist".

In my universe it was also the 24th century, I assumed, and I had no idea what had become of my Earth. The planet could have been destroyed, or conquered by aliens, or my humanity could be out among the stars forging an empire. Not that it mattered because really my people were gone, they might not be dead, but they would have changed.

"Then there is your hair," Wolf commented. "You keep it too short".

That just plain confused me, was he trying to get me to adhere to Klingon cultural norms related to my hair?

"Short hair doesn't get in your eyes," I pointed out.

He had a counter for that.

"I wear a warrior's braid for ease of movement," he said as if this was some sort of unassailable explanation. I'm not sure ease of movement would matter much if I could grab hold of that braid, pull his head back hard and slice his now accessible throat wide open.

Until now I'd just assumed it was fashion choice.

"And the rest of your clothes are inappropriate," Worf informed me. "You are strong, yet you do not wear armour or the trappings of a warrior so that everyone you meet knows who you are".

At this point I'd had enough.

"I don't have to listen to this," I said while standing up, and trying not to lose my balance. I'd drunk a lot of blood wine. "You can call yourself warriors all you want, but really you're nothing more than old fashioned barbarians with fancy tech. You talk about honour and facing your foe in battle openly, and then you attack people from your cloaked ships! What honour is there in a victory over someone who didn't even know you were there?"

Still I had more to say.

"Honour is earned through integrity and acts of true courage, not senseless bloodshed," I said to the Klingons. "Your kind changes the definition of honour from moment-to-moment to suit yourselves. You treat it as nothing more than an excuse to justify your poor behavior".

Once I'd finished berating the barbarians I decided to stagger off to my quarters. Surprisingly none of Klingons tried to stab me in the back as I left Ten Forward. I suspected Worf had had to stop them.

(Line Break)

Riker's Quarters. U.S.S. Enterprise

"So you had quite the adventure on Betazed I hear," Geordie said as Data passed around some more cards. "Care to tell us what happened?"

I figured I might as well, I did come off as a bit of a hero.

"Well, Deanna invited me down to Betazed because I'd never been to an alien planet before," I told the group. "Anyway we start walking around this park and then her mother turns up out of nowhere".

You didn't need to be an empathic being to tell that Troi was already embarrassed, and Worf was already looking uncomfortable, but that didn't prevent me from telling the tale. After all I had been rather awesome in it.

"And with a full on picnic no less," I then added, "and I don't think she was there by chance".

I still didn't know why she'd been there, I knew it had something to do with Luxanna wanting her daughter to get married though. If it was some kind of poorly thought out attempt to encourage romance between Deanna and I it was forbidden for a therapist to date their patient and until we got to Earth Deanna was still helping me in her professional capacity. Once we reached humanity's homeworld I'd be off the ship anyways, so we likely wouldn't get a chance for more.

"Anyway, then that nasty Tog guy turned up and the next thing we know we're all in a holding cell onboard the guy's ship," I informed everyone. "Then Tog tells us that he has a plan to use Luxanna's telepathic abilities to make himself rich and she's all 'I am the Daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed' whatever that means. By the way, Deanna, do you guys drink from the Sacred Chalice of Rixx?"

People found this really amusing, judging by the smiles on their faces and the looks they were throwing Deanna who was currently hiding her face, aside from Worf who never seemed to find anything worth laughing about. Not that he made any expression around me anymore, not since I'd laid into him while drinking too much in Ten Forward.

"So then Tog goes off with the ambassador and while they're gone I use the oldest trick in the book to get us out the cell," I told the group pausing dramatically for effect. "Which is to fake being ill to lure the guard into the cell in order to knock him out and escape".

I still couldn't believe that that had actually worked. I guess the lesson was that if enough time passes then even the old tricks can become new again.

"Once Deanna and I were out of the cell I had no idea what to do next," I admitted. "So I take one of the crew hostage and force him to take us to the bridge..."

Before I could carry on with my tale of triumph someone on the bridge called me to announce that we had arrived. Which meant that it was time for me to leave the Enterprise. I found that kind of sad, but I didn't want a fuss made so I quickly made my goodbyes and headed for the transporter. Perhaps someone would have made a fuss if I had let them, but I'd not wanted that and they'd respected my choice. I had a feeling our paths would cross again.

(Line Break)

San Francisco. Earth.

I had stepped off the transporter pad from the Enterprise a week ago. Once I'd left the ship I'd had to deal with the Federation's constant questions and form filling before I could finally get off the Starbase and walk once more upon the surface of the Earth. The upside was that I now had a new identity in this universe with all the corresponding paperwork.

At least the UFP had graciously set me up; my situation was not unique, at least not completely, as people from the past had found themselves needing to make new lives on 24th century Earth. So they had given me a spacious apartment in the middle of San Francisco and had even offered me a position in the history department of the city's massive university, as a librarian of all things. It had made me laugh at first, but I had accepted the offer, as while I wasn't required to work the Federation liked it when people contributed, even if it was in a small way.

They were even paying me, sort of. Federation Credits weren't money, you couldn't spend them in the strictly traditional sense, but you could save them and then exchange them for what you wanted, so it was pretty close. They were a lot like those tickets that arcades sometimes gave out that could be exchanged for cheap plastic junk, but rather than get something that would break five minutes after you got it, credits were used to book passage on ships to other planets, to access and spend a specified amount of time on the holodeck, even 'buy' goods or technology. Those things were gotten with credits because there was more demand for them than could be supplied to everyone. I suppose it was like rationing in a sense and an incentive for people to work. Everyone was allowed a certain amount for free and anything beyond that required credits. You want to travel to Risa? Then you needed to work and "buy" your passage with credits.

Everything else, though, including food, clothing, nearly all forms of entertainment, medical care, and even basic housing, was supplied by the Federation free of charge to all of its citizens. If you didn't want to leave Earth it was possible to live out your entire life without ever earning a single credit. But that would be extremely dull, at least for someone from my time.

Besides, I wanted to earn credits because even if they weren't money it just felt right to earn something for my work and you could exchange them for valuable things in their own right. A replicator gotten for credits here would still be a valuable item anywhere, in other words. For the most part it wasn't about the amount or what I could get with it, although visiting a colony would be interesting, it just felt right to be rewarded for my hard work. I feared that the Federation mindset was already at least partially rubbing off on me. My outsider perspective was far too valuable to lose.

At least I wasn't worried about starting my job, thanks to Data's personal tutelage and my superhuman brain, I had learnt at a vastly increased rate than was otherwise normal or even possible for a baseline human. In a month and a half I'd gotten to the point where I was sure I could spend the rest of my life, which could be a couple of centuries thanks to my enhanced body and Federation medical care, here on Earth without feeling like a caveman.

The Enterprise was docked at Utopia Planitia on Mars so the crew was having some much needed shore leave. That meant that I had several lunch dates set up with my new friends, Deanna and Data. Both of whom maintained apartments in this city for when they stayed on Earth. Not that Data ate food, so I assumed he was just being polite. We got along surprisingly well and had collaborated very productively on a few projects already.

As for me I was sitting in my apartment looking out of the big floor to ceiling windows that gave me an impressive view of the bay. It was mine only because it was a gift, in exchange for historical information, however I suspected that it was also a reward for getting Ambassador Troi and Counselor Troi back to the Enterprise in one piece.

The view was exceptional, breathtaking even, from this vantage point. For hours I watched shuttlecraft and aircars zooming above buildings both new and centuries old. I might have spent hours more just wandering the city, but the university had decided to put me to work right away so I had to get dressed and get going.

(Line Break)

San Francisco. Earth.

I walked into the large building of San Fran Uni, as it was called for short, with a little trepidation. While the idea of going to work was somewhat comforting in its familiarity, I was somewhat worried that it would be a repeat of my old life, and that my job would be oh so dull.

That feeling faded somewhat when I watched a blue skinned alien walk past me. Alien students on Earth, that was not going to bore me any time soon.

I found the library easily enough thanks to an interactive map on my Padd. Not that I really needed the help as the Library was a large building that took up one whole corner of the campus. So soon enough I was walking through the main doors and I found that within seconds I was almost completely at ease.

The library was large, much larger than I had imagined it, however that didn't bother me as I focused on what comforted me. It was the books, there were shelves upon shelves of real books with true paper pages and classic bindings. Paperbacks, hardbacks, textbooks, fiction and all of them were remarkably intact given that every one of them was from centuries past and had survived some horrific times in this planet's history.

"It's wonderful, isn't it?" someone said.

I turned to see a woman. She was wearing a fairly old fashioned looking skirt and her blonde hair was done up in a tight bun; she clearly liked the retro look. I also noted that she was very curvy in all the right places and despite her somewhat stuffy dress she was, simply put, very attractive. She looked very familiar as well for some reason.

"Hello, I'm Gothic," I greeted with a smile, hopefully charmingly.

Her eyes seemed to light up upon hearing my name.

"The 'Gothic' from the alternate universe?" she asked. "The Khan-era augment?"

That was me.

"Yes," I replied.

Apparently my infamy, or notoriety, preceded me.

"Hello, I'm Annika Hansen," she introduced.

That name rang a bell, and before long I knew who this woman was. She was freaking Seven of Nine, only not. She was no borg, and never had been, and the lack of metal parts on her face and skintight bodysuit had prevented me from recognizing her right away.

In this universe, not having ever been assimilated, she was a librarian. Which upon thinking about it more made sense; if there were no Borg in this galaxy anymore she never would have been assimilated and therefore she would logically be living a normal life somewhere within the Federation. Perhaps this was the true course of her life had the Borg not assimilated her.

Then I remembered where I'd heard that name before, Annika Hansen was the name of the head librarian I was to be working for. She was my new boss. Wow, the universe was really fucking with me lately. Quite a coincidence.

"I was expecting you a little later than this," she said.

This was because I'd given myself more than enough time to get here in case I got lost, but since I hadn't, I'd arrived sooner than planned or expected.

"Should I come back later?" I asked.

Hopefully not because I really wanted to spend time with her, if only to check out that sweet ass and those rockin' tits.

"Of course not," Annika said. "If you would like to step into my office I'll explain what you'll be doing here".

Before long I'd be doing her. Somehow I just knew it.

(Line Break)

San Francisco. Earth.

On my second day at work, the first having been little more than a tour and some paperwork, my boss took me to a large pile of books and a desk.

"This is your workspace," she informed me, "and I have prepared a little test for you".

At work she was in charge, but when out socially, like when I'd gone out for drinks with the other library staff just last night, she was a lot more relaxed. I understood why she was so formal, though, she was rather young to be the head librarian of a major university so she had to act extremely professional at all times or people wouldn't take her seriously

"I would like you to catalogue these," she said waving a hand at the pile of books. "Before lunch time".

If she expected me to groan or be shocked she was disappointed. I was no stranger to the Dewey decimal system that was used to organize these centuries old books.

(Line Break)

San Francisco. Earth.

Less than two hours later I walked up to her door and knocked on the door jam. Annika looked up in surprise upon seeing me.

"Problem?" she asked.

There was not.

"Nope, all done," I said.

Annika smiled at me, a little condescendingly, but she followed me out of the office so that she could see what I had done. All the books were now on the shelves and in the right place.

"How?" she managed to ask.

It was simple to explain.

"Back before I ended up in a pod, centuries in the future and in another universe, I spent some time working in a library," I told Miss Hansen. "This was back when they still used the Dewey decimal system, which I'm guessing most people don't know anything about since they use computers for everything these days".

Annika was now shaking her head.

"So many of those books were lost during the eugenics wars," she said sadly. "Book burnings," she explained.

That was terrible to hear.

"In my universe there was no such thing as the Eugenics War, so you guys must be missing a lot of stories that I got the chance to read," I realized. "That's a shame".

Annika smiled at me.

"I totally agree," she said with a small smile. "Maybe you could tell me more about your time. Say, over lunch?"

That sounded like a good time to me.

(Line Break)

San Francisco. Earth.

We'd had lunch together and after taking her out to dinner as well Annika had pretty much invited herself over to my place. I was almost certain that wanting to see the stuff I was messing about with was just a pretext, however I couldn't be sure as I had no idea how people dated in this time. Still, she appeared to be giving me all the classic signs, such as laughing at my jokes, playing with her hair and leaning forward to emphasize her bountiful breasts, so unless sex had really changed in the last few centuries I figured I was going to see her naked sometime soon.

"What's this?" Annika inquired as I showed her around.

Anyone from my time wouldn't have needed to ask, although they were unlikely to be right since it was much more than it appeared to be.

"This is a Harley Davidson Iron 883," I told her. "Well, sort of. When I got it most of the frame had rusted away and there were no wheels, so I had to replace a lot of it with replicated parts. Then one of my friends saw it and started suggesting modern improvements".

Data was gone now, as the Enterprise was off on yet another adventure, but he had sent me suggestions and design plans over subspace, and now the bike had a few technological upgrades. However, it still looked like a classic Harley and that was all that mattered. In the future I had some vague plans to construct a hover vehicle/gunship like I'd seen in numerous video games from my time.

"There's obviously no petrol anymore, you can't even replicate the stuff," I explained. "So it runs off a power cell. It doesn't have the same feeling of power behind it, but it's a lot more sturdy than the real thing, and safer too".

Using petroleum as a fuel source was illegal in this day and age, so even if I had been able to get ahold of some I wouldn't have been able to use it. While that ruined it somewhat it did making driving it around legal, or at least it would be when I had a license.

"I love old world stuff," Annika said. "My parents were the space explorers, but I've always been more attracted to the past".

Her clothes had told me that much already.

"Yeah..." I started to say.

The next thing I knew I there was passionate kissing and soon much more interesting things were happening.

(Line Break)

San Francisco. Earth.

I was woken up in the middle of the night by an annoying beeping sound. I started looking around for the snooze button and then remembered that this was the noise that alerted people that someone was calling them.

"Yes, what is it?" I said sleepily, once I was in front of my computer, trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes.

Given the hour it had to be something important; if it wasn't then someone would pay dearly because I'd just been forced to climb out of a bed that had a very naked and smoking hot Seven of Nine in it, well, sort of.

"Sir, your ship is here," a voice informed.

While I could have activated the visual of the person calling, I didn't turn on the video since I was currently undressed.

"I didn't book passage on a ship," I said, pretty confused.

And right now I didn't want to go anywhere. By round 4 of sex last night Seven was pretty much out of it, but I suspected she'd be up for more now that she'd slept a bit.

"No, you misunderstand, sir," the voice explained. "The ship belongs to you. It's undergone inspection and has been cleared for delivery".

I was still confused.

"Wait, are you telling me someone sent me a ship?" I asked, genuinely confused. "Who?"

There was a long delay before I got a reply.

"The records don't say actually," I was told. "It's not from Mars, but everything seems to be above board. I guess someone with a lot of influence and resources likes you a lot".

I had to find out more, because suddenly the whole galaxy was my playground and my plans for the future were suddenly happening much sooner than I ever anticipated. For some reason I had a feeling that some ultra powerful being would find me more entertaining if I had a ship of my own now. Wait, where did that thought come from?!

"Is it currently at the Starbase?" I inquired, once my inner monologue had ended.

I was quickly supplied with the information I needed, and a whole lot more that I didn't.

"I'll be there in an hour," I told the person up in orbit, eager to see my new ship.

Now I would have to wake Annika up and tell her that I was heading back into space. I had no intention of leaving without letting her know where I was going, as she might take offence at that. That was something I couldn't risk as I definitely wanted to see her naked again. That was worth far more than some ship.

Well, maybe, let's be honest, it really depended on the ship.