Big thanks to CajunBear73 for the review and also to everyone who read Chapter 1!
I'm taking a page out of Disney's playbook and dropping Chapter 2 right after Chapter 1, check back Saturdays around 12:00 UTC for more.
Fans of DS9 will have noticed that this is a lot more TNG-era than purely TNG. Voyager fans will get a bone, too, but not this week.
This chapter is dedicated to all Andorians whose parents fell for the lame fad of giving their children completely normal, but English human names, which comes around every other generation or so.
The curtain of the single occupied bed was completely open, between Kim's not-at-all-quiet expression of surprise and her subordinate's sudden movements, it seemed incredible that the two bodies remained nearly motionless. After the initial shock wore off, she inspected the bed's occupants, keeping a safe (and polite) distance. A human male, maybe late 20s, blonde, seemed to be fast asleep. His clothing seemed very, very old-fashioned – centuries out of date, but that was not a bad thing given the fashion disasters of the past few decades. At his feet, a pink rat, also apparently sleeping, was curled up against a small pillow.
Did he replicate a tiny pillow for the rat? Ferociously freaky… but harmless, I guess.
"Lieutenant, I don't think they'll pose much danger to us…"
"I tend to agree, Barros," Kim replied as she grabbed her tricorder. The device quickly reported the two life forms in front of her, and suggested they may be simply sleeping. At least it did clarify that the freaky pink thing was an Earth Naked Mole Rat. "Tricorder says they're just sleeping. If so, they're damned heavy sleepers." She reached for her combadge, "Possible to Enterprise."
Lieutenant Commander Data's voice was heard on the other end of the connection. "This is Enterprise, is the craft secure?"
"Aye Sir, nothing too out of the ordinary, but I'm worried something may be wrong with the two occupants. They seem to be asleep, despite the noise we've caused."
"Lieutenant, Doctor Crusher is standing by to transport over. If you have not found anything dangerous, we will inform the transporter room that she is cleared to beam aboard."
"Affirmative Commander, please proceed. Away team out." Kim looked around for a few moments. "Okay, keep an eye on these two, I'll go check up on things up front and wait for the Doctor."
The crewman nodded and Kim walked back up to the cockpit area. She reflected on the odd layout of the snaking corridor. Weird design they chose, couldn't they have moved whatever is behind these walls off to one side? I can't imagine it would have made much of a difference… She entered the cockpit section and asked for a status report.
"All clear, Lieutenant," Ayers replied, "Lieutenant Shrass is still running the diagnostic on the warp core. Not much else to report. Did you find the two life signs?"
"We did, they're asleep in one of the beds…"
Kim was interrupted by someone transporting aboard the Rio Grande, that someone was quickly revealed to be Doctor Crusher, Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise.
"Welcome aboard, Doctor. I didn't realize you were on duty this shift…"
Doctor Crusher smiled, "I'm not, but I came in early to review some tests, so it was no problem at all to take care of this myself. So, what have we got?"
"Well, more or less what the ship's sensors told us. One human male, and one rat of some sort, both sleeping in one of the bunks. If you'll follow me…"
"Lead the way, Kim."
She guided the doctor, not that there was any chance of getting lost, but protocol dictated that she do so. They quickly arrived at the patients' bedside.
"Hmm…" was the Doctor's reaction to the readings on her medical tricorder. After about a minute of inspecting the readings and the patients, she shared her diagnosis: "I'm no expert on rats, but I don't see anything wrong. As for the human, I'm pretty sure he's just asleep. Will you do the honors and wake them up, Kim?"
"Excuse me?" Kim did not like where things were going.
The Doctor smiled again, clearly her concept of bedside manner extended to dealing with those voluntold to help. "I have to monitor his vitals, and for that I need both hands," she brought her hands up demonstratively, tricorder in her left hand, medical probe in her right one. "Since you're leading the away mission, it's your honor to wake Prince Charming…"
Kim's first instinct was to complain about the inversion of roles, it's Prince Charming who does the waking. However, she quickly realized the full implications of the metaphor. Her mildly offended expression turned into a shocked one.
"Don't worry Kim, that part is not necessary or wise. Just nudge him awake."
She took a deep breath and approached the bed. So not the drama, it's not like he's going to grab your neck and try to strangle you… Besides, he looks harmless enough… Kim looked back at the Doctor, who nodded her approval, and tried to gently nudge the man awake.
He continued snoring.
A stronger shake followed.
The snoring continued, now accompanied by indistinct mumbling. "Just… Bit more… Kim…"
Did he just call out my name? Must have been my imagination, head in the game, Possible…
"Lieutenant, shake him harder," the Doctor ordered.
Kim complied. With the extra force exerted on his shoulder, the inertia of the man's head was beginning to cause enough discomfort to bring him out of his deep sleep. Grumpy grumblings were heard as he turned his head to the light and slowly opened his eyes. They seemed to dart around the room for a second before locking onto Kim. Suddenly, his face was taken over by a shocked expression, which in turn faded into one of inconceivable joy.
"Oh my God, KP, it really is you!"
Kim was stunned. KP? As in Kim Possible? She looked around, hoping that either the Doctor or Crewman Barros would have an explanation.
"Uhmm, Sir… Do you know this man?" The crewman had clearly made the same interpretation of the stranger's words.
None of this had an immediate impact on the now fully awake man, who started nudging the Naked Mole Rat awake. "Rufus, buddy, wake up, Kim is here!"
Rufus the Naked Mole Rat reacted immediately to Kim's name, looked around and jumped up, shaking his head as if trying to rid himself of an illusion. "Kim!" Astonishingly, it actually sounded like he was calling out Kim's name!
Kim turned again to face the stranger, who by now was getting up from his bunk bed. To everyone's further surprise, he nearly jumped out of the bed's cubicle, his arms open, and embraced the Lieutenant. Barros reached for his phaser, but Kim motioned him to stop. Whoever the stranger was, and despite his actions, she did not feel that he posed a threat… It's like I'm his long-lost friend? What on Earth is going on here. Not seeing any other course of action, she cautiously returned the embrace.
After what felt like an eternity, Kim felt the stranger shift, as if he was looking around.
"Woah, sorry doc, I didn't mean to stare! For a moment there I thought I was seeing Mrs. Dr. P.!"
He released Kim and took a step back. Rufus had climbed onto his shoulder and was clearly as excited as his owner.
"You're looking badical, KP! Lieutenant Possible, coolio!" The stranger said after getting a good look. "So… Where are we? When are we?"
Oh boy, Temporal Investigations is going to have a field day with this sitch, and I'm caught up in it. Spankin'.
Fortunately for Kim, Doctor Crusher decided to take over at that point. "Relax, all is well. Can you tell us your name?"
"Ron Stoppable, Doc."
"Alright Mr. Stoppable, I'd like to get the two of you back to Enterprise's Sickbay for a full examination. It's going to take a while, so in the meantime, Lieutenant Possible can brief the captain."
Kim took a second to process the Doctor's words, her mind still racing to make sense of what was going on. Who is this guy? And what's with the 'KP' bit?
"Yes Doctor," she answered, "Will you be beaming over immediately?"
"If our guests have no objections."
"No objections, Doc, I've made it a point not to argue with my redhead doctors." Ron turned his head to Kim, "KP, I hope we can talk later, it's been so long… So much has happened…"
"Uhmm, sure, later…" Kim answered hesitantly, and reached for her ticket out of this situation, her combadge: "Away team to O'Brien, please beam the Doctor and our two guests directly to Sickbay. Two humans and one, uh, Naked Mole Rat…".
"Copy that, Lieutenant, got a lock on two humans and one rodent. Whenever you're ready."
The group got in position for transport. Clearly, wherever he had come from, Ron Stoppable had plenty of practice with transporters.
"Energize," Doctor Crusher called out, and soon the three were transported away.
Kim took a deep breath and said to herself, "This is going to be so the drama…" She raised her voice, "Well, Barros, back to the cockpit we go."
"Uhmm, Lieutenant, if I may ask…"
Kim did not give him the chance to ask the question, "You may ask, but I have no answers. That was ferociously weird, and I have no idea what just happened." Ferociously weird doesn't even begin to describe it! He knew my name; his rat seems to recognize me as well… And did he mistake Doctor Crusher for Mom?
Back at the cockpit, Kim tried, and mostly succeeded, in projecting an aura of business as usual. "Report," she ordered.
"Well, the diagnostic of the warp core is clean," the Andorian engineer answered. "As for the weapons, everything's okay there too, phaser banks are safed and powered down, both the on-board ones and those on the giant tumor…"
"That's the Modular Tactical Payload Unit," Kim interrupted somewhat brusquely. "My father is the lead designer of this class," she offered to soften her interruption.
"Sorry Kim," Lieutenant Shrass replied, "No offense intended."
"No big, no offense taken. You were saying?"
"All phasers are safe to bring aboard. 20 photon torpedoes loaded, standard Mark XXIV. Both the launchers and the munitions have their safeties engaged."
"Okay… Could we get her underway?"
"Sure, everything's green."
"Possible to Enterprise."
The Second Officer quickly responded. "Enterprise reads you Lieutenant Possible, please report."
"Sir, all systems appear to be nominal, and we have identified no threats. I recommend we leave two crewmen aboard to monitor systems and fly in formation with Enterprise, at Warp 5, until we bring her aboard. That will allow us to review the data more carefully without delaying our mission too much."
More so than a desire to quickly ferry the troops to Starbase 375, Kim was concerned that two ships holding position in the middle of nowhere would attract unwanted attention, namely from Klingon raiding parties. The Klingon K'vort-class Birds of Prey were small enough that they could sneak up on Federation ships at low Warp factors. At Warp 3, an intensive and directed scan was needed to detect a cloaked ship comfortably outside weapons range. Past Warp 4, Klingon cloaking devices could be defeated by a variety of means beyond standoff range – gravitational distortions, tachyon scans, ships in formation could even operate as a large multistatic proton beam sensor system. But sitting in one place allowed the K'vorts to reduce speed when approaching their target, making the cloaking devices very hard to defeat.
"Agreed," Lieutenant Commander Data responded, "will you need a pilot?"
"Negative, Sir, Crewman Ayers is rated to fly Class II ships." Kim had planned ahead, where a lesser officer may have picked the first two names on the day's duty roster. "I'll leave him and Barros aboard and beam over to brief the senior staff."
"Very well, Lieutenant. Please prepare a briefing for 05:00. Helm, prepare to resume course, coordinate with the runabout. Enterprise out."
Kim walked over to the right seat, where Shrass had been going over the ship's systems. She asked quietly, "Rachel, anything else you need to do here?"
"Nope, I'm ready to leave," the engineer answered while gently waving a data storage device she held in one hand, "Gotta download the data for analysis and start on the preliminary report."
Kim nodded and turned to face the two crewmen.
"Alright guys, the ship is yours. Take care of her until the captain lets us bring her aboard Enterprise."
"Aye, Sir," they answered in unison. Ayers added, "We'll coordinate with the Enterprise to fly in formation."
"Please and thank you," Kim answered. Lieutenant Shrass had gotten up, so Kim touched her combadge.
"Possible to O'Brien, Lieutenant Shrass and I are ready to return. Energize."
The transporter completed its rematerialization cycle and Kim found herself in Enterprise's Transporter Room 3.
"Thank you, Chief. That away mission was way gorchy."
"Pardon?" O'Brien's face evidenced his confusion.
"Seriously awkweird," Kim clarified, as she stepped down from the transporter pad.
"Ah, I see. I caught bits and pieces, sounds like fun times ahead with Temporal Investigations?" The irony in his voice was as clear as his brogue.
"And here I hoped to make Lieutenant Commander before my first interview with Temporal Investigations…" She turned around. "Rachel, can you get me that preliminary report by 04:30?"
"Yup," the Andorian answered.
"Thanks, appreciate it…"
The time was 03:58. Not a lot of time to prepare a briefing. Why does stuff always happen at the end of the duty shift? As Kim left the transporter room and headed for the turbolift, her mind wandered back to her earlier encounter. That Stoppable guy looked so happy, how come I don't get more of that?