"Do doo do do, into the side of his prett-" Elle stopped singing under her breath, lifted her head. "Hang on a second. Who's listening to 21st century country?" she demanded.

A sheepish hand lifted from the back of the media nook. "Sorry, I'll turn it down," the dirty-blond said.

"No, it's fine, it just freaked me out. I was not expecting anyone on the Enterprise to have country songs as their preferred music genre." Elle moved over to sit across from the boy her age. "Or are you doing a research project?"

He blushed to the tops of his ears. "It started as a research project, ironically," he said. "Now I've got a reference for it, un-ironically."

Elle grimaced in sympathy. "I caught that one with 'dude.' And yikes. And oof. I should probably stop saying things ironically."

"So do you like 21st century country music?" he asked. "Oh, I'm Tyler by the way. Tyler Legrange."

"I'm Elle. And, uh, kinda, sorta, not really? I'm, uh," she grimaced again, "from the 21st century."

His expression cleared. "Oh, you're that kid." He smiled at her. "So since you do have more experience with the era than I do, where do you suggest I go from here?"

Elle grinned. "Well, I have a great song to show you, kind of in the same vein about knowing that a person was trouble for you, but for context, have you ever heard a goat scream?"

-/\-

Elle didn't even realize they had rescued the anthropological team off of Mintaka until the Enterprise was already en route to their next survey planet. "Wait, we got them already?" she asked. "You did the whole Picard's not a god thing, without me?"

Troi frowned at her, confused. "Why would... did you think we would have contact with the native species?"

"You didn't?" Elle asked.

"No..."

"Then how'd you get them beamed back up?"

"Every on-site anthropologist carries a subdermal transceiver for this exact reason," Troi said.

Elle stared. "They're chipped? Like a puppy?"

"Like a member of the Federation who cannot be seen by the native population," Troi corrected. "It was just a matter of beaming them up and sealing the observatory."

Elle deflated into her chair. "Well that's boring. Good, that the Prime Directive wasn't broken, but boring."

Troi smiled. "It couldn't have been a very interesting episode. The Mintakans are proto-Vulcans, very calm and rational beings."

Elle snorted. "Calm? And rational? They can't be related to Vulcans, not unless this is their third ascension through the eras and they've finally pulled their emotions together. Or unless they're some sort of Preserver-aided colony of Vulcans that found logic faster than Vulcans did."

"That's why we're studying them discreetly," Troi said. "The original Enterprise's work with the human Preserver colonies has spurred a lot of research in the area anytime we encounter parallel evolution of societies." She checked her tablet. "That's our next mission actually, more archaeological research."

"I bet the captain's happy," Elle mused. "He loves archaeology."

Troi tilted her head. "Have you spoken to him about it? A bit of common ground?"

"It hasn't really come up yet."

"Hm." Troi regarded her for a moment. "You haven't been to the bridge yet, have you?"

Elle suppressed her excitement. "I didn't know if I was allowed."

"You passed the security orientation didn't you?" Troi asked.

"Yeah, but, no kids on the bridge," Elle said awkwardly. "I didn't wanna get kicked out."

Troi smiled at her. "Let's go to the bridge."

Elle's excitement skyrocketed as they waited in the turbolift.

Troi couldn't help grinning. "You are very excited," she teased, "I'm amazed you've waited this long."

Elle grinned and bounced on her toes. "Next Gen is my second favorite show, but my parents' favorite." Her smile turned wistful. "My mom would have loved to see it in person. She'd be so excited to know that I'm here."

The turbolift doors slid open and Elle stepped onto the bridge. There was no angelic choir from an alternate dimension, but the soft murmur of working officers and the soft beeps of the LCARS displays were a sufficient herald.

She blushed as several people turned to glance at her.

"Miss Wilcott," Worf rumbled.

"Hi," Elle said.

Picard smiled at her and gestured. "Feel free to gawk," he offered. "I'm curious as to your insights."

Elle caught the disbelieving glance Riker shared with Worf, and she stifled a giggle. She poked around the bridge, careful not to touch anything. "The buttons actually make sense," she said, surprised. "I don't know why I'm surprised, but..." She stared at the neatly labelled buttons, all set up in clusters of similar types in an actual user interface depending on what station it was. And as this was a touchscreen, there were several different screens depending on what you needed it for. So anyone could control any station from any point on the bridge. "Nice..."

"Why wouldn't the buttons make sense?" Riker asked.

Elle shrugged. "Well, when the episodes were made, they didn't think anyone would be able to see the details, first of all, and then when they did write labels or do things, it was more for that 'futuristic aesthetic'. And there's all sorts of in-jokes, and if there were lists of things, they always put in Easter eggs."

"Eggs?" Data asked.

"Easter eggs," Elle said, "a surprise hidden, usually a joke or a reference to something else one of the cast or crew has worked on before. Like R2-D2 and C3P0 in Indiana Jones. Or like, the names of their spouses or something as the name of a scientist or something. Filler."

"I see," Data said.

Elle walked down the ramp to the main portion of the bridge, peered over Data's shoulder, shared a bro-nod with Wesley, and walked over to the captain. "I have just realized that this bridge is carpeted," she said. "Why?"

Picard frowned. "Good question. Data, do you know why?"

Data tilted his head. "Carpet was laid down to prevent slipping on the ramp once the Enterprise was remodeled for a ramp instead of steps," he said. "It also decreases chance of injuries if there is a sudden maneuver."

"That makes sense," Elle said, silently snorting at the mental image of Captain Picard sliding down the ramp in his socks. "But if there is a sudden maneuver, or whatever, what about all the coffee and the tea stains?"

Riker laughed. "There's a position in Maintenance for that."

Elle blinked. "Really?"

"Really."

"Okay. That makes sense." Elle contemplated the carpet again. "We should've had carpet on the original Enterprise. Would've saved me a concussion."

Picard coughed. "What happened?" he asked, as if he wasn't laughing at her behind his hand.

Elle rubbed at the phantom pain on her head. "It was when we were testing the Inversion Drive and Klingons intercepted us. We had to basically dogfight at sublight, but there was such a sharp turn, I whacked my brain against the rail and missed the whole thing. I was so mad. But the computer caught the whole thing, so I just uploaded it to the sublight maneuvering simulator and played it myself." She grinned in memory. "It took me two weeks to get through that scenario but I got it. Think I logged like half my hour requirements on that single sim."

They were staring at her.

"You, the- sublight, dogfight, the Enterprise?" Wesley asked, looking horrified. "You can't dogfight a ship that size!"

Elle shrugged. "Yes you can, Sulu figured out the tolerances and spent like two months working up a simulator. The captain didn't like it either but it was that or die, so..." She lifted her hands.

"I've never been able to get my hands on it," Wesley said, disgruntled.

Riker's eyes twinkled. "Because you haven't been to the Academy yet, Wes."

"So it still stayed in the academy after all this time?" Elle asked.

"No, you don't understand," Picard said, his eyebrows still near his invisible hairline, "that simulator is still the primary flight simulator for the Academy."

Elle frowned. "So everybody knows how to do moves like that at sublight? That's cool."

"No," Picard said slowly. "For that specific scenario we're still using Admiral Sulu's simulations because they were so precise to the original Enterprise. The Fleet 'discouraged' anymore sublight simulators with starships because they didn't want any young hotshot to mistakenly take out an entire starship with untested bravado."

Elle grinned. "So you're still using it? That's great!"

"No, you don't understand," Wesley said, "you completed the scenario! I've heard about that scenario, like, maybe three percent of pilots complete it within the alloted time. My father did, the captain has, but most people don't."

"How much time do you have to play it?" Elle asked, curious.

"Eighty hours," Wesley said. "It doesn't even count towards your grade, it's just extra credit."

Elle turned red. "Ah."

Worf narrowed his eyes at her. "How long did it take you to complete it?" he asked.

"Uhhh," Elle said. "I don't remember."

"You're definitely lying," Troi said, looking amused.

"See, here's the thing, I had literally nothing else to do but play it in my free time, and I wasn't going to the academy so I didn't have to share a simulator or anything," Elle started to explain, flapping her hands awkwardly.

"Elle," Picard said, "a number?"

She blushed hotly. "Maybe, forty hours total?"

"You got it in forty hours?" Wesley screeched, and his voice cracked. He turned scarlet.

"I had Sulu giving pointers behind my shoulder the whole time, I had the ultimate cheat menu," Elle explained frantically, as Picard gawped at her. "There was no way I was gonna get it by myself. The rainbow road simulation took me like, two hundred sixty hours to finish, and he wouldn't help me on that one, so-" Nobody's astonished expression was going away. She tugged at her sleeves anxiously. "What? Did he take off the rainbow road option?"

"By rainbow road are you referring to the Gauntlet simulation?" Data asked.

Elle blinked. "Is... that the one with the six Klingons, the two Romulans, the gravitational waves, the asteroid belt, and the no shields?"

"Yes," Data said.

Elle bit her lip. "Yeah, that's the one."

"That simulation," Picard said with dignity, "took me three hundred hours to complete."

Elle stared at him. "To be fair," she said faintly, "I had nothing else on my mind when I was doing it. Considerably less stressed than any cadet."

"But you did pilot the Enterprise in real life," Riker said, adding fire to the flame as Wesley's eyes nearly fell out of his head. He was enjoying himself, the smug man. "I read that mission file."

Elle folded her arms. "I literally sat at the helm for four hours in orbit around a planet," she said. "It was the most terrifying thing that I've ever done, and that includes dying. Twice." She felt bad when she saw all the adults wince.

"Well," Picard said, recovering himself and grinning at her, "you'll have to get up to speed on the Galaxy-class if you want to repeat the experience."

Elle stared at him. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Picard said. "The hour requirement is 100 hours on the simulator, and you are almost old enough to receive an actual pilot's license, if that is your goal."

Elle resisted the urge to bounce. "Yes, sir."

"Nice," Wesley said. "I can show you how to get set up in the holodeck. You won't have access to the sublight dogfight simulator, but everything else, unless-" He looked beseechingly at Picard.

"No," Picard said sternly.

"Cool," Elle said, and held out her fist to the ensign.

Wesley stared at it.

She gestured. "You make a fist, you bump, like this?" She demonstrated. "It's like a high-five but no sweaty palms."

"Is that a twenty-first century thing?" Wesley asked, obligingly bumping fists.

"Yup."

-/\-

Elle stayed on the bridge till end of shift. Picard let her take the fourth chair in the central dais, "if Dr. Crusher isn't here," and they hung out. It was a quiet shift, but Elle got to know them better, especially Data and Worf.

She went back to her quarters for dinner, tired and accomplished. "The captain said I could come up anytime if it was an episode, or if it wasn't interfering with my classes," she told Simba the Third excitedly. "We're in! We're really in!"

Simba the Third trilled, echoing her excitement.

She kissed it on the head and went to sleep early. "Alexa, remind me I have to call Spock and Bones for an update," she murmured, settling into her blanket nest.

"Reminder logged," Alexa said.

"Thanks," Elle said.

"Elle," Alexa said, thirty seconds later.

"What?"

"Don't forget you have to call Spock or Bones for an update."

Elle rolled on her back to glare up at the ceiling. "Really? You've evolved into dad jokes?"

Alexa's snicker was highly realistic.