Rachel pulled her car to a halt outside of her home. Glancing around the square yard, she looked for her brother on the off chance that he was lingering nearby for her return. He seldom left the estate anymore, he hated being here and hadn't adapted as well as she had. He preferred to stay here and think of ways to get them back home. In addition to that, it was imperative that someone who could relate to the general population remain on site at all times. In the past they had only managed to avoid potentially destructive moments by the skin of their teeth when some of the indigenous people came strolling onto the property, and Rachel did not like the idea of having to explain everything to outsiders. They would either believe her, or think of her a crazy, and neither option sounded particularly appealing.

Getting out of the car, she checked to make sure that she wouldn't be stepping in any muddy puddles. Before colleting her bag and making her way up to the main house. As soon as she opened the door she was nearly barrelled down by a furry attacker. Laughing Rachel pushed him down, but he kept jumping up.

"Archer! Stop it, get down." She light heartedly scolded the beagle as he welcomed her home. "Shall we go and find out what has gotten Zac's knickers all in a twist?"

Crossing the hall, she made for the kitchen with the clipping of Archer's nails following her. Heading towards the wine cellar door, she noticed that the light was on and the top half of the door was open, which meant Zac was probably down there.

"Zac?" She called down the stairs. "Zac? Are you down there?"

"Yes." He called back. "Get down here, and leave that bloody dog up there. He always does something to fuck with my computers."

"Just a sec." Rachel called down to her brother. Before turning to the dog, who looked up at her with big soulful brown eyes. "Sorry sweetie. Zac won't let you down there."

Making sure to close the bottom half of the door behind her, Rachel made her way down the stone steps, her footfalls echoed around her in the tunnel like structure which lead her below her house.

"Hey Rach." Zac greeted. It was half hearted; he was busy concentrating on something else on one of his various computers. "Come and have a look at this."

Zac pointed to a graph with an abnormally large spike on it.

"That's great, what does it mean?" Rachel asked.

Zac gave her a filthy look.

"Oh sorry Mr Physicist/Engineer/Technical genius. Remember I'm just a pilot, I'm not like you damn it." Rachel remained her brother. It seemed that sometimes he forgot that she didn't see things the same way as he did. To her what he had showed her was a squiggly line, with a very big bit on it; to him it was obviously something different. Sure, Zac was a genius when it came to computers and mechanics, but the man couldn't fly for shit. That's where she came in, they were a double act. He was the mechanic, and she flew the contraptions he built.

"Right sorry."

He didn't mean it; his monotonous voice said it all.

"So tell me, what does all this mean?" She asked again.

"This spike is a detection of an abnormally high electromagnetic activity. There is always some residual activity, but this is not normal. There was a similar spike the day we got here, and we've encountered it a few more times after that, as you already know. I think there's a ship out there. Plus I'm detecting a Tri-lithium signature on the long range scanner, nothing like that is available yet, so it's defiantly something from close to home."

"Can we hail them?" Rachel asked, the seriousness of the situation dawning on her. This could be it; someone had come looking for them.

"I'm trying to establish a connection. I have to work around the satellites, the last thing we need if for any government to detect them as well. The head cases at the Pentagon will probably launch a missile at it and blow it up, or the Russian's might try something. Or the Yanks and the Chinese will fight over who gets to study it and apprehend it first." Zac spoke as he was typing at an incredible speed.

Rachel quietly laughed at her brother. Ever since the probe he had managed to launch two years ago had been destroyed by the US government he had developed a dislike for politics and the military, regardless of which country it belonged to. She had attempted to reason with him by saying that launching an unidentified probe into Earth's atmosphere was a bad move. His retaliation had been that it had only been detected because his cloaking device had failed and that they were morons because the probe was harmless. He then took to 'getting them back' by hacking into various government systems. So far he had shut down the CIA computer systems, hacked Scotland Yard and the Pentagon's protected files and was working on infiltrating the computer systems used by NASA and the Russian Space programs.

Rachel had to admit that her brother was amusing. He was running rings around some of the most sophisticated pieces of software in the world, and no one had any idea who was doing it. They were all blaming an organisation called 'Anonymous', the idea that it was all down to one man with a serious grudge hadn't crossed anyone's mind. Zac was causing an international crisis with what he was doing. It was all rather laughable really. Well it was for her. But a larger part of her rational mind was glad that this other organisation was being blamed for her brother's actions. They had to be careful, anything they did could alter the flow of the past, and that wasn't something they could risk.

"Right there we go. I've managed to get around the blanket net, it'll probably only be audio, but we will be able to make contact." Zac announced, reaching for a microphone he had on one of his shelves.

"Well you do that then. I've got some other things to see to right now." Rachel informed her brother as she climbed the steps leading to the kitchen. Calling over her shoulder just before she reached the top, "And be nice, or at least don't be rude!"

All she got in response was a derogatory scoff.

There was no point talking to Zac when he got like this, she could make better progress with a brick wall. And she really did have other things to be getting on with. Rachel had a sneaking suspicion that Zac had spent the better part of the day down in his cellar, which of course meant that as per usual, he had neglected other things. Things like making sure that the various animals on the property had been feed. Letting out a rather large sigh at her twin's juvenile behaviour, Rachel stepped out into the yard; Archer trotting along merrily at her heals.

"Captain." Sulu announced, he was back sitting at his pilot's station. "We're being hailed Sir."

"What? Where from?" Jim demanded. This was all very confusing. They were apparently over 200 years in the past, and now they were being hailed? What the hell was going on? Not only that, Scotty had been fiddling about with a conduit, and it had short-circuited, giving him some nasty burns. So Bones having to deal with the heavily protesting engineer, who was claiming that he was 'fine', when the smell of burnt flesh emanating from his hands said otherwise.

"The planet Sir. Someone on Earth knows we're here and they want to talk to us. It's audio only. Sir, the signal isn't what it should be for this time; whoever it is they have advanced technology. There is a message along with the hail informing us that the connection is secured and will not be detected by the plant's various national officials." Sulu answered.

"Pass it through." Jim ordered. He wanted answers and he wanted them now, plus he was intrigued to learn who was down on Earth who clearly shouldn't be.

"This is Captain Kirk. To whom am I speaking?" If Sulu was right, this greeting should be okay, but he wanted to keep somewhat vague.

"A Captain, nice." A male voice commented. "My name is Zachary. What time frame are you from?"

Jim was slightly taken aback by the boldness of the question. Somehow the person on the planet knew that they were from a different time. And by the resounding silence that filled the cabin, Jim guessed that everyone else was surprised by the question as well.

At the silence this Zachary person spoke again. "Come now Captain. From the fact that you were able to receive this transmission alone, I know that you come from at the very least, the latter part of the 22nd century. Before that, communications between planet and spacecraft weren't this advanced. So come on, dates, or at least a ball park figure to work with."

"Err, we come from the mid-23rd century." Jim stumbled out, unsure of whether it would be wise to give specific dates or not, clearly deciding that not was the better option.

"Brilliant!" Came the resounding answer. "Finally someone from a similar-ish time frame! This is turning into one of the best day's I had in a long time. Captain, you've not only made my day, but you've made my year. But of course that's all relative isn't it?"

"And why is that?" Jim asked cautiously, not completely knowing or understanding what the faceless man was talking about.

"I'll explain all that later Captain, I swear. I expect you'll have taken damages, so you'll have to land your ship. By the way, just how big is it? I can detect you, but I can't get a clear fix on the dimensions of your ship, damn Russians and their bloody satellites. I might have to do some mild demolition. Plus then there's the slight modifications that'll have to be made, yes, yes, it's all coming together. It'll take a while, but soon, yes soon. Ha!" The voice came out in a flurry that strongly suggested that Zachary was talking to himself as opposed to Jim. "Oh, how many are in your crew? My sister will want to know. And are you all human? If you are it just making things easier for us and maintaining appearances."

Jim's eyes were wide with a mixture of shock, bemusement and confusion. He was quickly coming to the conclusion that this man, whoever he was, was a few nacelles short of a warp engine. Despite the fact the Jim's mind was working on overdrive, he couldn't have tuned out the appalled sound that issued forth from Chekov at the nut case on the planet insulting the young man's native land.

"Our ship is merely a shuttle craft. My crew consists of six including myself, and we're all human, for the most part." Jim relayed once again to the faceless man, all the while casting Spock a sideways glance. "You are not alone here?"

"No, not by a long shot. We have a small community down here Captain, you'll see all of that when you get down here." Zachary replied, sighing at the conclusion of his sentence. "You have to wait for me to give you a signal, and I'll then send you our co-ordinates. It'll be about two hours before you can even consider making a decent into the atmosphere, best do that when it gets dark out."

Jim frowned at that, he recognised the Iowa accent when he heard it. And right now he could see that it was broad daylight all across the Eastern Seaboard, and judging from the line of shadow that was halfway across America, it would remain broad daylight for a considerable amount of time. It would certainly be longer than two hours before nightfall. Jim spoke of his confusion and concern to Zachary, who in turn laughed.

"And what pray tell, gave you the impression that we're located in America?" Zachary managed to ask once he had got his laughter under control.

"I'm from Iowa myself." Jim announced. "I'd recognise that accent anywhere."

"You have a good ear Captain, I am from Iowa. Or at least that's where my sister and I grew up. But we didn't land in America, it would have been too dangerous there for us, we're in Europe. The North East of England to be exact." Zachary chuckled. "I will contact you in two hours, I have preparations to make. Cochrane out."

And with that the connection was broken.

"Did he just say his name was Cochrane?" Bones asked.

Jim was just stood stock still, he couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"Doctor, I believe ze better qvestion vould be, vot he meant by 'bloody Russians'?" Chekov practically spat, obviously enraged at the insult on his home country. Which naturally set Sulu into a fit of laughter despite the seriousness of the situation that they had somehow found themselves in.

And here's the second chapter. I'm impressed with the number of people who read the first chapter, especially after it was only up for a day before I posted this chapter.

Thanks to those of you who reviewed chapter one, and those of you who added this story to your favourites/alerts. Your support is much appreciated.

Xoxo