A/N: Just watched Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. God that movie ships Spock/Bones so hard.
What happens with Bones and—uh, well, you'll see, is entirely the fault of rosemarysaurus who came up with the best idea on the planet.
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Enterprise High
being a high school AU of ST: XI
with many hijinks
and much angst
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Chapter Fourteen: The Squire of Gothos
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It was not a good day.
The Hoverclub were resting around the remains of the Enterprise, exhausted and covered in grease. It was seven o'clock on Friday night and all of them, even Spock and Scotty, wished they were somewhere else. Only Pike was still standing, leaning bonelessly against the pillar framing the entrance to the shop garage. They were quiet except for heavy breathing.
Scotty let out a long breath. "Shall we start again, youse? The hull's goin' t' be impossible for less than eight t' remove."
Everybody groaned. Kirk jumped up and helped people their feet, avoiding Bones, who stumbled upright on his own. They gathered around the back of the hovercar, accepting the tools that Scotty passed around silently. Spock took the Phillips laser and bent down, jimmying it into a slot near the license plate holder. (The unharmed license place, a remarkably tough piece of metal, had been removed, cleaned, and hung on the wall.) Scotty nodded and everyone wrapped his or her fingers around the rim of the hull plate, straining upwards. Spock activated the laser.
It took another fifteen minutes, but they finally got the hull off. Scotty backed away, wiping his hands. "I'll have t' work on a stronger alloy," he said. "This metal keeps warpin' from th' heat."
"Perhaps magnetized steel and gurian?" Chekov recommended, straightening from placing the hull on the floor.
Pike stepped forward. "Gurian is much too expensive," he said. "You're as bad as Spock, Pavel. At least you're not recommending archanite."
"Mr. Pike, archanite would be ideal for the purposes—"
"Spock, archanite costs thousands of credits per cubic foot. The administration has given us a generous budget, but unless we want to scrap the rest of the ship, we can't buy any archanite, much less enough to cover the entire primary."
Spock frowned. "Perhaps we could acquire enough funds to purchase the needed materials."
"Including the gurian," Pavel said quickly.
"Including the gurian," said Spock, "which, I believe, is even more crucial to the design than the archanite."
"We could go to Gothos," said Chapel. Everybody looked at her. "You know, the metallurgy company that contracts for Starfleet. They might offer us an—an educational discount, or something."
"Not a bad idea," said Pike. "I'll check in to it. Meanwhile, let's start deconstructing this engine. Scotty, are you ready to trash the hydrogen?"
"Ah am, sir," said Scotty, grinning. "Never liked th' stuff. Let's shift it, lads."
They spent the next hour disemboweling the belly of the Enterprise. Each part had to be removed from its casing, assessed, repaired or replaced, and cleaned before it could be fixed back in the hovercraft. They weren't going to get much done tonight. It would probably take fifteen more nights before they would finish, not counting whatever they had to do with the new casing and cockpit interior. The second race was in twenty-one days. They would be cutting it very close.
The next day was Saturday. Scotty convinced them to show up at nine to continue the deconstruction. Spock said he would be there at seven, which made Scotty's eyebrows shoot into his hair. They bargained it down to eight, Scotty still muttering about crazy Vulcans not needing any sleep. Pike, who had to be there at all times to supervise construction, bit back an anticipatory yawn.
To make matters worse, Bones sat bolt upright in a bed not his own the next morning. He stared straight ahead, well aware of the snoring, naked form beside him.
Goddammit, he thought, his heart attempting to beat its way out of his bare chest.
He steeled himself, took a breath, and looked.
Yup, he thought grimly. That's who I suspected it was.
His companion rolled over, snuffling into a pillow. It was Scotty.
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"Fuckin' alcohol," growled Bones, clutching his head, which was throbbing gently. The floor of Scotty's room was littered with beer bottles and blueprints. Evidently they had been going over the plans for the Enterprise. Bones didn't know; neither of them could remember a thing. But judging by the condoms in the trashcan and the soreness in their muscles, something had happened.
Scotty, predictably, had already shrugged it off, which was driving Bones absolutely insane. The man was sitting there like nothing had happened! Sure, it wasn't Scotty's first time with a man, but it was sure his, and he was damned if he was going to let Scotty ignore it.
They were talking—well, Scotty was talking, and Bones was doing some yelling—when Scotty's PADD buzzed.
Bones caught a look at the screen before Scotty could snatch it away. It was a text from Uhura.
"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego," whispered Bones. "Did you tell Nyota?"
"Nay," said Scotty, not meeting his eyes.
Bones flipped out. "YOU. TOLD. NYOTA. She's gonna tell everybody. Scotty, I'm goin' to have to kill you."
"Nay, you cannae, we have t' finish th' Enterprise!"
"Spock can do it on his own!" Bones reached strangling hands towards Scotty's neck. "You demon."
"Help!"
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In reality, their hookup had been quite touching. Scotty had been worried about his precious hovercraft, and Bones had generously offered to take him out drinking. After about fourteen beers, Scotty had ended up crying on Bones's shoulder about his concern for the ship while Bones patted his back drunkenly. Their natural recourse was total nudity, which they had attempted in the bar (they were that drunk), but they had been hastily thrown out. They hailed a taxi back to Scotty's (the traumatized driver had to be paid extra) and settled down to business.
Of course, neither of them remembered any of this. All Bones knew was that his face was sticky, and what the hell did that imply, and was Scotty positive that he didn't remember anything? (Even if Scotty did remember anything, he sure wasn't going to tell Bones, not with a reaction like that from him.) After being chased around the kitchen table a couple of times, Scotty convinced Bones to back down and go take a shower. Bones acquiesced grudgingly and slammed his way into the bathroom. Scotty waited nervously for Bones to finish, cleaning up his room a bit and making sure his parents and siblings hadn't been woken up by the commotion. When Bones got out, Scotty made sure to have his clothes ready. Unsurprisingly, Bones kicked him out of the room while he got dressed, so Scotty went to take a shower.
They were dressed by seven forty five. Bones elected to go with Scotty, figuring that only Spock and Pike were going to be there, and neither of them were likely to rib Bones about it.
As it turned out, Uhura had roused everybody except for Kirk. When Scotty and Bones walked through the door to the shop together, Sulu and Chapel shot confetti at their heads. Bones nearly fainted. Scotty laughed uproariously. Spock merely looked detached.
They got started pretty quickly on the Enterprise since Bones absolutely refused to speak or make eye contact with anybody and Scotty, utterly incorrigible, could only talk about how much work there was to be done. Everybody except for Bones noticed that Chapel was being frosty to Scotty. Bones was too busy brooding and dropping tools on his toes.
Kirk, who had been informed of the incident, appeared at nine. He had been invited to show earlier but was still feeling strange about Bones. He couldn't help but put a hand on Bones's shoulder, though, trying to comfort him. Bones shivered when he felt Kirk's hand and gave Kirk a rare, unreadable glance before returning to the components before him.
Since Kirk had arrived, Pike felt it was time to make the announcement.
"I got us an appointment with a manager at Gothos," he said, smiling. "They have plenty of what we need and are evidently quite willing to part with it at a discounted price. We're going at one thirty, after lunch."
Spock nearly smiled. Everybody else cheered.
They didn't know too much about Gothos; nobody did. The factory was located a few miles from San Francisco proper, hidden between some hills. The entrance was famous: Gothos had basically walled off the area between the hills with old-style rock. Arches were built in the wall that allowed passage to and from the factory. The entryways were protected by force fields that checked the identity whoever passed through them. Gothos was a primary cutter of diamond-edged tools, and so the Federation had allowed them such strong security.
They took the school transport out to the factory, parking it in a visitor's garage through the arches. A security android directed them inside through the main steel doors, which were also framed by a stone arch. Another android, a secretary, brought them to a luscious waiting room and told them it was very sorry but it would be a half an hour before they could see William Trelane, the manager Pike had spoken of.
Kirk couldn't resist exploring. He got up, ostensibly to find a bathroom. Chapel, to his slight dismay, came with him, but as soon as he said what he was up to, her face lit up and she declared her intentions to go with.
There were no humans in the halls. Evidently all of the office assistants were androids, well made but with the required display of robotic innards to prove that they were not human. Most of them had their synthetic flesh removed on their necks, but the security guards, who wore turtleneck uniforms, had no hair, just a glass casing over the innards of their skulls.
Kirk disliked androids and avoided them. Chapel, meanwhile, had never been around so many at once, and had a doctor's interest in studying their movement. Kirk had to drag her away from one that was working on the gear components in its arm. The androids took no notice of them, not even the security androids, whom Kirk had expected to question them about their authorization.
They reached a viewing room and saw their first humans. A short man and a redheaded woman dressed in work-professional were talking quietly in front of a large pane of glass that overlooked the factory floor. Kirk and Chapel tried to move back when they entered the room, but the man saw them, and turned.
"Can I help you?" he said, not unkindly.
"Uh," said Kirk, wishing he'd brought a change of clothes like everybody else. His shirt was covered unattractively in grease and sweat, his thin jacket doing little to hide the mess.
"Um, yes," said Chapel, who could see that Kirk wasn't going to be any help. "I'm sorry, we were here with our teacher to talk to Mr. Trelane about parts for the hovercar we're building, but we seem to have gotten lost. Can you direct us to his office?"
"Yes, of course," said the man. "Wait just a moment, June. If you go—"
There was a sudden, horrible noise from the factory floor. The man whipped around, dashing back to see what was happening. The woman had whipped out her communicator and was talking rapidly into it.
"Observation here. Model echo whiskey forty seven did not take the uplink, repeat, model echo whiskey forty seven, automation broken. The robot is destroying part of the assembly. Security units to factory floor."
"Damn," growled the man. "We should have scraped forty seven when it first gave us trouble."
The woman, June, glared at him. "We spent millions of credits prototyping that line," she snapped. "I wasn't about to authorize its destruction just because it wouldn't take to its programming."
Her communicator squawked. "Floor here. Echo forty seven attempting to destroy security androids. Can't you override this?"
"IT should be working on it."
"IT's electricity flickered a couple of minutes ago, they're trying to get back online!"
"What? But—they're the ones—"
Kirk and Chapel watched as the man and the woman were swarmed by androids. They gave out fast, professional instructions. Kirk and Chapel snuck forward until they could see what was happening on the factory floor.
A large, blocky-looking robot painted a deep red had swung itself out of a furnace pit and was beating on another machine nearby. The security androids surrounding it were a fifth of its size, and the devices they were using to try to restrain or deactivate it didn't seem to be working.
"Observation to IT. Hurry up!" June snapped.
"Ma'am, we're uplinking as fast as we can, but it's going to be ten minutes at the best."
"We don't have ten minutes! Forty seven is trying to detach its anchor! Can't one of you go to a working computer?"
"The IT building is too far away, it would be useless to try and make it. And nobody else in this damn facility can program, so we couldn't even explain to you what you needed to do."
"I can program," said June defensively.
"Not really," said the IT person. "You're a designer, not a computer engineer. You don't know Pinstripe, do you? You've got security access, but the subframe code is very complex."
"I could try. In fact, I have to try." June gestured to two nearby androids. They walked to a pillar in the middle of the room and opened a panel on its side. The panel broke in half, retracting into the ceiling and the floor, revealing a computer panel. June rushed over to it. "Okay, I'm in the mainframe."
The rogue robot struck an incredible blow to its anchor, shaking the whole facility. Back in the waiting room, Pike flipped his communicator open.
"Pike to Kirk. Are you safe?"
"We're fine," said Kirk. "Gothos is having issues with a robot."
"Issues? That sounds like an understatement."
"Oh, it is. We're in an observation room, near—"
He was interrupted by June's snarl. "Explain what the strate is, then."
"It's the active layer in Pinstripe," said Kirk, trying to be helpful.
June stared at him. "You a programmer, kid?"
"I'm not bad," said Kirk.
"Get over here," June said. "You know Pinstripe?"
"Yeah…"
She shoved him in front of the computer and handed him her communicator. "Go."
"Uh. Okay. Er, Kirk here, tell me what to do."
"Who?"
"Tell him what to do," June said dangerously into the communicator.
"Alright, keep your pants on…"
Chapel kept Kirk's communicator open. In the waiting room, everybody had tuned in to the same channel, listening intently to the IT person's instructions to Kirk. When the IT couldn't explain a concept that Kirk needed to know, Spock broke in. "Think of it in terms of Perl."
"Oh wow, that makes sense," said Kirk, starting to type again. Sulu and Chekov also interrupted at various points to clarify.
"Who are you guys?" the IT demanded, but June shushed him.
In five minutes, the program was ready. "Upload," said the IT.
Nothing happened. The robot continued to beat mercilessly on its extremely battered-looking anchor.
"Uh," said the IT. "Upload?"
"Yeah, it didn't work," said Kirk, staring at the screen.
"Wait jus' a second," said Bones unexpectedly. "Is all this based on neurotronics?"
"Yes," said the IT. "Why?"
"And your neurotronics specialist is gone today?"
"He's home with Ankaran flu," said the IT. "How'd you know?"
"Upload it through the second cord," said Bones. "The, uh… the kalate?"
"The kulot, yes," said the IT. "But that won't do any good, the kulot's just a back up—"
"Do it anyway," said Bones.
"The what now?" said Kirk, totally lost. "What are you talking about?"
"It's a neurotronics thing," said Chapel. She pointed to a line of code. "Lock into that one, then upload."
"Alright…" said Kirk doubtfully, obeying.
There was a pause as the computer processed the request. And then there was silence from the factory floor as the rogue robot stopped mid-swing.
"Wow," said Kirk. "Thought you guys were doctors, not programmers."
"We can be both," said Chapel, grinning. "Neurotronics is a robotic technology based on human neurosystems. Handy, huh?"
"Extremely," said Kirk fervently.
"Okay, I'm impressed," said the IT. "Seriously, who are you guys?"
"High school kids," said June, taking the communicator from Kirk. "They were here to see Bill about parts for their hovercar. Am I right?"
"In one," said Chapel.
"Tell me what you need," said June, "and you've got it."
"In addition," the IT chimed in, "any of you guys want a job?"
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"This is likely t' be the best day o' me life," said Scotty, stroking the archanite shield fondly. "And the hull'll be finished in—how long did she say?"
"Two days," said Sulu.
"I'll bring it over," said Kirk, who had accepted the job offer immediately and now was a part-time programmer. "It's nice having a corporation like Gothos in your debt, huh?"
"Wery nice," said Chekov. He held up a microchip. "Where does this go, Hikaru?"
"Right there, in the slot next to the gold wires," said Sulu, pointing.
Kirk was working with those gold wires. Chekov's hand brushed his as he maneuvered his part into place. Kirk glanced up at him.
Chekov smiled, a shiver running up his arm.
Bones, meanwhile, was busy avoiding everybody, especially Scotty, who, regarding the previous night, had mentioned remembering "somethin'… about a pair o' handcuffs, maybe?" earlier in front of the entire group, causing a scene. Chapel tried to talk to him about neurotronics but he wouldn't look her in the eye. Finally she'd had enough.
"Why are you so worked up about this?" she hissed, drawing him into a corner. "Look at me. What? What is it? Are you actually homophobic or something? Are you ashamed?"
Bones drew himself up. "Of course not!"
"Well then, what's wrong with you?"
Bones looked her squarely in the eye. "I don't take sex lightly," he growled. "If I'm interested in you that much, then it really means somethin'. But this was totally different—I don't like Scotty; I don't want to pursue a relationship with him. But it happened anyway, and I feel like I've betrayed myself."
"Oh," said Chapel, backing down a bit. "Well, that makes sense." She paused. "How many sexual partners have you had, anyway?"
"Three," growled Bones. "As of last night. See?"
"Quite," said Chapel. "Er, who's the third?"
Bones gave her a look that said, How dumb are you? "Gaila. Who else?"
"Oh. Obviously," said Chapel. "Sorry I even asked."
They were quiet. Chapel put her hand gently on his arm.
"It's okay, you know," she said. "To lose control sometimes. You don't have to keep everything in you so tight."
"I know," said Bones. "But I've lost control before. I don't want somethin' like that to happen again."
Before Chapel could ask what he was talking about, Bones had pulled away and gone back to the Enterprise.
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