Three chapters in one day? Don't get used to it. This one is a long one but does explain a little about Dawson's name.
Dawson sat alone in the engine room fixing an important valve connected to the cooling towers which had been damaged by the attack. As head of maintenance and being largely in charge of engineering she had sent most of her staff to sleep and eat after the busy couple of days. She had taken her break when she had visited McCoy and Chekov so continued working. Suddenly Kirk appeared out of nowhere as if he had beamed down but that should be impossible. Seeing this caused Dawson to drop her spanner and stare at the new arrival in shock. She watched as Kirk looked around as if expecting someone to be next to him.
"Scotty" he started to call but stopped when he heard a muffled cry from in the cooling tank. As the water was pulled out and into the engine Dawson glimpsed an unusually dressed man be sucked out with it.
"No, no, no, no, no" muttered Kirk as he followed the man.
Pulling herself together Dawson ran after kirk. "What are you doing here?" She called to him she had picked up her spanner and was now using it as if it was a terrifying weapon though she knew it was far from being that.
"Not the most important thing right now!" He pointed out. "Please can you just show me where the cut-off switch is?"
Dawson briefly considered the consequences of helping a stowaway but thought no man's life should be sacrificed for a clean record. "This way" she answered as Kirk followed her. She quickly showed him the access panel. She knew she was unable to access it so started hacking into the controls as she spoke "I cannot access it, my clearance has not been updated to the engineering level I need because everything happened so quickly, you know. First I was just an ensign but then I got promoted to head of maintenance and now I have practically taken over engineering as well. I mean not that I really know what I am doing, I am just direct the team but they're the ones who know what they are doing. I think if we were to go and attack like you suggest we need to find a proper engineer." Dawson stopped as she finished hacking and all she needed to do was push a button.
"Look with all due respect, he is an engineer and, oh my god, he is getting closer to the fan. Hurry up!" Kirk shouted as he became more and more distressed and worried for his friend. Dawson quickly pushed the button and smiled as it worked first time. The strange man fell out heavily onto the floor and started coughing.
"It seemed the person the ship needed in order for your plan to work just fell out of the sky, you are a very fortunate man Mr. Kirk" she said with a smile as Kirk was making sure his friend was ok before they got ready to run.
"What is your name?" The strange man asked, addressing Dawson. She was surprised to hear a broad Scottish accent, excited that he was from the same country she was.
"People just call me Dawson" she said extending her hand.
"Well people call me scotty" he replied giving her a hug to show his gratitude before realising he was making her soaking wet.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, Chekov had just started to settle in to his duties when an alert came up on his readouts claiming to be an unauthorised access in engineering. He felt a pang of worry in his heart because he realised Dawson was down there and that is what motivated him to check it out. The changes in the past few days had meant most of the alerts were due to out of date authorisations as the crew changed so frequently. As he looked at the video feed what he saw shocked him and he immediately put it up on the screen telling Spock behind him. "There has been a breach in engineering Captain."
Chekov was sad to see his friend helping Kirk and a strange man pick themselves up and starting to run with them towards the bridge. He registered Spock calling for security as he typed commands into his work station trying to follow his friend with the cameras as she ran through the ship.
As Dawson was running with Kirk and Scotty she started to feel worried, she knew Chekov would be worried about her and investigate the alert, making Spock aware to call security. She was caught by surprise as Kirk started talking to her as they ran, asking "So they don't have first names on your world?"
Happy with the distraction and the chance to talk which helped with her worry, she answered honestly saying "it is my first name"
"Oh, so they don't have last names?" he further inquired.
Dawson felt embarrassed but thought that being honest with kirk was the way forward. For some reason she felt like she could trust him and felt a small amount of loyalty towards him. "It is my last name as well." She answered.
Their race towards the bridge and conversation was cut short as the small group found themselves surrounded by security. After the big security guard, which Dawson recognised as Patrick, or paddy, her high school bully who she tried her best to avoid at the academy, had made a stab at Kirk he turned to Dawson making her feel nervous.
"If it isn't little Dawson Dawson, so nerdy they named twice." He stabbed at her.
"Well at least she isn't some lackey for the pointy eared bastard and can actually think for herself" She heard Kirk say in her defence and felt very touched that the man was on her side so quickly.
They were all escorted to the bridge, which was ironically where they wanted to go in the first place, and where presented before the Captain like prisoners. The moment Dawson entered the bridge her green eyes instantly met Chekov's blue trying to send comfort and reassurance to him but she could tell he was starting to panic. She did not take any notice of the conversation going on around her until the Captain addressed her.
"Engineer, inform me how they got into the engine room. And also inform me why you were helping them." She was about to respond when Kirk jumped in, defending her again.
"What is her name, Captain? Do you not even know the name of woman who has been keeping you ship flying?"
Dawson jumped in, not on to just sit back and let someone else keep on defending her. "Thank you Kirk, I assure you I can speak for myself. However I can confirm that he makes a valid point. All I want to do is keep this ship afloat but you do not know my name. Everyone in Maintenance and Engineering has been running themselves raged trying to get your ship up and running but you haven't even updated the crew authorisation or come down to check in on us." She continued but cast her gaze at both McCoy and Chekov because they could relate to what she was about to tell him. "Even people on your bridge have been more involved than you and close to running themselves into the ground trying to cope with repairs and dealing with events of the past few days, do you not care? Or is that showing too much emotion for you?" She raised her voice at the end of her statement, letting all of her anger over how she and Chekov had been treated by him out.
Kirk used this to attack Spock about being emotionally compromised but as Spock and Kirk started fighting and Chekov fled from his seat Dawson returned her gaze to his and tried to convey comfort. She could almost see the guilt and panic rise as Spock tightened his grip around Kirk's neck and something seemed to break in him when Kirk left the bridge, confirming he was emotionally compromised.
To be continued- only one or two more chapters until the end.
Thank you for reading- please review if you want to :D