CHAPTER 3

McCoy is probably the most illogical human being I have ever come to meet. On ordinary days, he can reason out of the most irrevocably logical statements on whims of emotion and humanity. It is his nature, mostly forgivable, had on this day gotten us into a substantial amount of trouble.

Jim, Lt. Uhura, Second Officer Scott, and I stepped into the transporter panel.

We were beaming down on an unknown planet, right into the center of the coordinates which had sent our sensor's temporal readings off the charts. It was not a logical move for us, but as misfortune would have for us on the Enterprise, Doctor McCoy had accidentally injected 12 times the normal dose of cordrazine into his bloodstream, and in his violently paranoid state, fled from the ship.

The planet's surface slowly came into focus around us. It was rather desolate, mostly rock and sand, rather arid climes around 60 degrees.

Jim informed the landing party to split up to search for the doctor.

As the rest of the party thinned out around me, I activated my tricorder. Seeing as we were already here, It seemed logical to try and pinpoint the area of temporal disturbance.

My sensors led me to a large rock, seemingly carved into a large ring. The disturbances were coming directly from it.

"Captain. I believe I have discovered the source of the disturbance."

As soon as the Captain had joined me, the ring began to speak. It took me by surprise, and both of us jumped back, startled.

"I am the guardian of forever." the stone spoke, glowing in rhythm to it's words.

I was rather taken aback at the ring's abilities, so logically I began recording it into my tricorder.

Amazingly, we seemed to have stumbled upon a tear in the space time continuum. As the Guardian began to explain it's purpose, scenes of times past started flowing in its center, like a filmstrip. From this entrance, one could travel to any place, any planet, at any time period desired.

It was an enormous discovery.

I adjusted the knob on my tricorder in order to focus the picture.

Quite suddenly, Doctor McCoy ran past my left side, and haphazardly into the time portal.

Immediately, he vanished.

Our Surgeon General was lost somewhere deep in the folds of time.

I sighed and shut off my tricorder.

This mission was going to be much more time consuming than I had reasoned.

Jim flipped open his communicator with a snap.

"Kirk to Enterprise. Kirk to Enterprise."

Silence came from the other end of the communicator.

Jim adjusted one of the settings and tried again: "Kirk to bridge, Kirk to bridge, acknowledge."

Still, no response.

My eyes met Jim's as the sudden reality dawned on us.

McCoy had altered history.

The Enterprise no longer existed.

Immediately all around me, the landing party protested.

"You can't follow him, it's too dangerous!"

"You don't even know where he is!"

"Spock recorded it, didn't he? We can at least try to figure out his whereabouts."

"Captain, the chances are too slim!"

"Would you rather stay on this planet forever? There is no ship to beam aboard, lieutenant!"

"It does sound risky, Sir."

I tuned the argument out. To me, it wasn't even a question. We had to attempt to rescue McCoy. It was the only logical answer.

The entire ship, and everyone on it, had ceased to exist. Logically, it must be recovered. Something icy dropped into my stomach as my brain wrapped itself around the situation. A thought had popped into my head that I couldn't shake.

Ensign Perry was not up there. She wasn't giggling in the computer lab or drawing comic strips in her quarters. Saving the Enterprise was no longer instinct. The fact that there was no longer a Susan Perry in the world, the fact that she had never been born was unacceptable. There couldn't be such an absence. It flawed the entire space time continuum. Logically, truthfully, unexplicably, it had to be fixed.

Somewhere from deep in my heart cavity, something quivered.

-----------------

I looked up at Jim.

He was laying on his bed, looking dreamily up at the celing.

Clearly, thinking about Miss Edith Keeler.

I turned back to my work.

In order to narrow down the time frame as to when McCoy would show up here, Earth's 1930 New York City, I had concocted an interface out of pure junk. It was almost impressive, and deep in my mind It occurred to me that I should have been an engineer.

"Spock? What do you say we take a break and go get some food?" Captain asked, still grinning lazily at the cracking paint.

I looked up at him.

Truthfully, the thought of food seemed superfluous compared to the dire importance of regaining our ship. We had already been here for 5 days, McCoy could show up anywhere from right now till yesterday. Until I got this machine up and running, there was just no way of knowing for sure.

Jim got up and stretched.

I knew he wasn't really hungry. He was just delighted to see Edith once more.

I put down my screwdriver.

I never understood why humans insisted on being so blatantly open about courtship. Take Jim for instance. There he was, my great Captain, giddily falling all over and talking in that stricken voice that lovers do. It seemed so illogical. Relationships would move so much more quickly and directly if a man didn't turn into a bag of jelly in the presence of love. I was thankful to have been born a Vulcan.

"Of course, Captain."

He grinned and sauntered out the door, more than eager to be on our way.

I stood from my bench, and bent down to retrieve my hat.

I jammed it down over my head, uncomfortably pushing the pinnacles of my ears into the sides of my head.

For a brief moment, I let my thoughts slide over to Susan.

I lifted my head and walked quickly towards the door. Now wasn't the time to focus on the possibility of failure.

I opened the door and stepped out.

Jim was on the stairs, talking in a nonsensical manner to Miss Keeler, who was walking down the stairs to meet him.

Again, irksome memories began to cloud my thinking.

In my mind's eye, I could see Ensign Perry in the lounge at night, dancing airily with lieutenant Uhura. I could see her eyebrows kneading together worriedly, overriding an error in the computer system. With a strange pang, I recalled her loud, flashing laughter, falling like drops of silver over everything as she reveled in her latest amusement.

I snapped back to reality as with a small cry, Miss Edith tumbled down the stairs.

Jim rushed to her right away, and caught her.

He looked at me guiltily.

That could have been her moment to die.

History could have been altered at that very moment.

It dawned on me then that nothing was more important than finishing the interface. We had to get back to our time. We had to save McCoy. We had to save Susan Perry.

I turned back into our room, and shut the door behind me.

I had work to do.

-----------------------

A few days later, I was walking down the corridor of the Enterprise.

The mission, though tragically involving the death of Miss Keeler, was successful.

I looked up at the bright artificial lights and felt at peace.

The Enterprise was indeed, my home.

I turned a corner and continued down the hallway towards the computer lab.

Once again, my heart cavity emitted a strange palpitation.

Although Jim and I had been in New York for over a week, time passed on the Enterprise only a few hours.

I knew she would be there. It was illogical for my nerves to be on the edge.

The doors of the computer lab slid open in front of me with a mechanical sound.

There she was.

She was not sitting at the computer, typing away dedicatedly, as I had imagined.

Ensign Perry was not cataloguing at all, but rather dancing around the lab, singing into the end of a spare converter. Her MP3 player sat on the panel, which was void of any files. Clearly, she had been working very hard in my absence.

I leaned against the door frame. For a moment, I just wanted to look at her.

I could feel the edges of my lips wanting to curl up into a human smile, but I suppressed the urge.

Yes, it is logical.

I wasn't sure what question I was answering to myself, or if it was even an answer at all. Somehow, all the strange human emotions that were running around in my head as I stared at Susan, seemed logical.

As her song came to an end, Susan whipped around and threw her head forward in a very energetic finale.

I stepped in the room and let the doors behind me close.

Her head snapped up to look at me from behind a curtain of dirty blonde hair.

Startled by the sudden audience, she dropped the converter to the floor with a clang.

We stared at each other for a few seconds.

A new song started on her MP3 player. A slow and bittersweet melody, circa early 2019.

The words slowly and scratchily floated around the two of us.

You know your looks could kill,

So strange and yet so beautiful,

I'll get a glance before you go,

Oh.

Perry bent down quickly and picked up the converter, putting it hastily on the table.

"So, so sorry, Mr. Spock." she flushed an even deeper shade of scarlet, "Sometimes music passes the time... I really had been working....At a point....I wasn't expecting....I wasn't expecting you at all today as a matter of fact."

She wiped her hands nervously on the bottom of her skirt.

I told it like I always knew

Someday it's gonna dawn on you,

You're gonna figure out you love me, too.

It was enough just to look at her. Humans have this habit of sweeping up loved ones in their arms, swinging them around and pressing their lips on their skin in a most unecessary manner. To me, just looking at her, alive, talking, blushing, was quite enough to negate the work of the past few days.

She mistook my gaze as disaproval, and immediately bent down to continue cataloguing planets Beta 12- 16.

"I will see you tomorrow, Susan."

Her ears pricked up. I had never addressed her as Susan before.

I turned slowly and left the room, feeling very fuzzy and bloated. The doors shut behind me, cutting off the mellow music from the other side.

I was constructed for you,

You seem to fit me,

But love is just a word,

When you think like a machine.

---------------------