I'M BAAACK!

Hi guys, as you can see I'm no longer in my little hiatus. Any of you that read my Spock story know why I've been away for a little while, but all I can say is that I aim to be updating much more often than I have been. But given that I have three stories on the go atm, and another on in the beginning stages of planning, I'll probably be updating once a week, if not more.

I hope you like this chapter, I spent ages playing about with it and I was unsure about the route I have chosen to take it, but oh well...

Don't forget to review! - it's my only form of payment ;)

Zac clapped his hands together once in a burst of joy. In all honesty his behaviour reminded him of that of a young child. He quickly formed a mental plan of what he needed to do, there was so much that needed to be done, he almost didn't know where to start. In the chaos that was his mind however, one resounding message made it through loud and clear. Tell Rachel.

Pushing away from his desk, Zac allowed his wheeled chair to propel him as far down the room, towards the stairs, as it would let him. And then, springing to his feet, charged up the stairs two at a time to the kitchen, all the while his mind was working at a speed of knots.

There were people here, from their own century, and they had a ship. It was a small one, true. But it would be big enough for him to work with. He hoped they had an engineer with them, someone who was competent at least when it came to maths and ship design. Zac didn't know what he'd do if they only had pilots in their company. Thinking about it he should have asked, he couldn't work with people who were only capable of flying the machines he meticulously built. He constantly felt like he was fighting against them, and more often than not he lost out when a higher power was forced to mediate the issue. It was partially from this that Zac's dislike of bureaucratic powers had spawned.

Plus, Zac understood the minds of pilots. His twin sister was the most accomplished pilot he knew, and she was the only one who was ever allowed to pilot his machines for the first test runs. There was no doubting that Zac truly loved his sister. And in some ways, she was his better half. But there was no point in denying the fact that when it came to the cognitive processes, Zac had undoubtedly won. He was a genius, bordering on the tipping point of being a sociopath, but a genius none the less. Sure Rachel was intelligent, that much was clear upon talking to her, but it was Zac who was the undisputed genius. Still it was Rachel that actually made him somewhat more pleasant and bearable to the mass majority of society.

"Rachel!" Zac called out, he sounded like a kid at Christmas. "Rachel, they're coming. They have a ship and it might be salvageable!"

"That's nice Zac, what did you do with the eggs?" Rachel asked him nonchalantly, she had seen him like this before. And every time he worked himself up like this, it didn't bode well if things didn't work just as Zac wanted, so Rachel had learned over the years to go along with him, but not to overly encourage him when he was relying on others.

"Rachel, listen to me! A ship will be landing out in the woods come nightfall, several people will be joining us, and I need their help. If they let me have their ship we might be able to go home!" Zac emphasised, knowing exactly what his sister was doing. "Just think, they might be able to get us back to our families. You might be able to get back to George and James."

There was a sudden loud clap that resounded throughout the large farmhouse kitchen as Rachel's palm made contact with Zac's cheek. There was a stunned silence from the two humans in the room, neither quite believing what had just happened. The only sound that could be heard was the disgruntled grumble from Archer who had been woken up by the noise.

"That was a low blow Zac, using George and James against me to manipulate my feelings." Rachel hissed at her twin. "Whilst yes, I want to get excited about the prospect of getting home, as nothing would make me happier than to be able to get back to them. I can't bear the thought of you failing again and crushing my hopes. If you ever use the memory of my boys against me one more time I swear it'll be one of the last things you ever do Zac, you hear me?"

A tense atmosphere hung in the air for a few moments as Zac gazed at his sister, his eyes revelling nothing about his feelings. He knew in deep within his heart that he had crossed a line mentioning his nephew. Rachel worked hard to distract herself from the fact that she was so far away from her son, that's why she had thrown herself into life in the 21st century. But it was because of Rachel that Zac worked equally hard to get them home. True at times he was perceived by most people as a cold and ruthless person, but he would do anything for his sister.

"I'm sorry." Zac eventually spoke, a level monotone to his voice.

"You bet your ass that you're sorry. I can't have my heart broken again Zac, so don't play with it." Rachel snapped, turning away from her brother. "Anyway don't you have something to go and do? I have a meal to prepare, since it appears that we're having guests."

If there was one thing that Pavel Chekov prided himself on it was his perceptiveness. Having been one of many in a house that was dominated by the female sex, he had learned to pick up shifts in moods; after all it had been in his best interest to do so.

So when he noticed that Captain Kirk had been rather quiet ever since the transmission from the planet below, his pressed the matter further, but not with the Captain himself but with the Captain's best friend.

"Doctor?" Pavel questioned cautiously. Doctor McCoy was reading something on his PADD, and if there was one thing that every Ensign knew on the Enterprise, it was to never interrupt McCoy unless you were dying.

"Hm? Yes Chekov?" Bones answered, glancing up at the obvious nervous Ensign.

"I believe zat something it twoubling Keptin Kirk." Pavel voice held strong under the Doctor's gaze, his eyes displayed just how nervous he truly was.

"Really now? What makes you say that?" Bones asked, doubt in the Ensign's statement lacing his voice.

"He haz not spoken ever since ze transmission from Earth Sir. He seems to be deep in thought, and he's scovling a lot Sir."

Frowning himself, Bones cast a glance over to Jim, who was indeed scowling. And now thinking about it, Chekov was right, Jim had been uncharacteristically quiet for the past half hour. Especially since Jim should have been excited. It was no secret that Jim was a 20th and 21st century pop culture nut, now that he was here he should have been bouncing off the walls, not sat staring, literally, into space.

"Alright then, I look into it Chekov. Thank you for bringing it to my attention." Bones cast the younger man a tentative smile.

Nodding to his senior officer, Pavel turned and walked back over to his seat, falling into easy and fluid conversation with Hikaru Sulu.

Sighing to himself, and marking his place on his PADD. Bones dragged himself to his feet and crossed the small distance to slump back down next to Jim.

"Alright, what the hell is wrong with you?" Bones briskly enquired. He really wasn't into the touch feely crap, especially when it came to Jim. Enough people looked at them funny as it was, he disliked giving anyone anything to use against them. He had even overheard a couple of young crewmen talking about his and Jim's relationship as potentially being beyond that of just good friends. To say the least the small group had one hell of a time playing the part of human guinea pigs for a range of Bones' trial pharmaceuticals.

"What?" Jim asked, his voice distant. "Oh, erm, nothing."

"Bullshit. You look like you've had your ass kicked for the first time, and are completely clueless as to what just happened to you." Bones scoffed. "Plus, you're about as transparent as a Kilingon Bird of Prey right now, so spill it."

Jim remained silent and continued to stare at the great expanse that was space, his reluctance to talk about what was bothering him obvious.

Bones sighed again, and decided to come at this from a different angle. "Come on Jim. You've been silent for the better part of an hour now, uncharacteristically so. So just tell me what bothering you, or I'll set Spock on you."

That last comment made Jim crack a smile, before he sighed himself. "You're not gonna let this go are you?"

Bones laughed. "Ya'll have got a better chance of getting snow in Georgia in the middle of July, now come on."

"Fine." Jim murmured, the reluctance still laced thickly in his voice. "When we first made contact with whoever is down there, I though the voice sounded familiar, but I chose to ignore it, even when he said his name was Zachary for the sake of it being a mere coincidence. And then he said 'Cochrane'."

Bones was the one frowning now, "Okay, so he said Cochrane I fail to see how any of this is relevant. As far as I'm aware, unless you've been hiding something major from me, you don't know anyone from the Cochrane dynasty."

"Bones you don't get it!" Jim moaned, covering his despairing face with his hands.

"Of course I don't get it, you haven't told me anything to get."

Jim seemed to snap, and turned to glare at his best friend. "Bones, down there Zachary Cochrane is waiting for us. But not just Zachary Cochrane, its Zachary Cochrane and his sister, Rachel. Together they are better known as the Cochrane twins. They disappeared when I was eight years old. Search attempts were mounted across the quadrant. The pair of them had disappeared in the middle of a test flight of the latest warp engine that Zachary Cochrane had developed. They were presumed dead, but their bodies were never found, there was no wreckage."

"Yea, I know. I remember the news coverage. In case you've forgotten, I'm older than you." Bones snipped back. "All you've shown me here is that you have a ridiculous amount of knowledge regarding the disappearance of the Cochrane twins. Did you do a report on it or something when you were a kid?"

"In the news, it was reported that whilst Zachery Cochrane left behind no one but his parents and other siblings, Rachel Cochrane on the other hand left behind her ten year old son, George." Jim paused and seemed to attempt to swallow the lump in his throat. "What most people didn't know about was the fact that there was another child in Rachel's care, her Godson. She looked after him because his mother was attempting, and failing to deal with the loss of her husband. When Rachel disappeared her Godson, for lack of a better term, 'fell of the rails'. He became a young offender, he was frequently in trouble with the police, he stole, he lied and he cheated. He drove his mother to the end of her tether."

Bones remained silent and gazed at his best friend with a cautious look. He was getting a sense of where this was going, and he wasn't sure if he liked it.

"That boy was me, Bones."