Beyond the Stars, Beyond the Moon

Part 4: I Can Fix Zat

Pov: Chekov
We reach the engineering dock and Scotty greets us, "well there ya are, laddy! And who's this?"

"Dis is Cassie, Commander Spock's sister and our new recruit from zhe U.S.S. Caliber. Cassie dis is Scotty."

"Pleasure to meet you, lass." He shakes her hand, "you as well, Mr Scott" she says before turning to look around the deck.

As she's turned around, Scotty gestures to me pointing to her with a thumbs up and a wink, making me blush. A lot.

"So what's the damage report Mr Scott?" She asks.

"Well the debris mainly hit us down here, so we have that panel in the corner there is completely shot, so all the wiring might need to be replaced, it also put a good crack in one of the pipes there, so the coolant it spilling out everywhere all over those panels there, and most of the coolant flowing back to the warp core is spilling out at the crack, so temporarily we manually raised the electronic temp of the core, making it rush through the pipes faster so there's enough getting to it until we fix it. If we punch warp now she'll overheat in a jiff. I have a crew working on the pipes, but we still have that big area there that needs fixing and replacing."

"I can fix zat. Ve'll go get started."

"Excellent. All the supplies you need should be in that storage closet to the right." He starts to walk away towards more red shirts scurrying with pieces of pipe and welding, then he pauses and looks up, "get down!" He yells up to his minion, or so most call him.

I look and see that Cassie has already gotten work tools and is headed to one panel in the corner. I walk to the supplies and grab goggles to put on. Do I put them on now or wait till I walk over and act cool? I decide to keep the goggles in hand and I walk over to where she's starting to work.

"So uh Cassie...are you an ensign too?"

"I am, yes." I can see her smile as she stays focused on her work. "So...navigator of the U.S.S. Enterprise is an ensign, and a part time engineer?"

I blush "yes, it just comes naturally. I've alvays been interested in it." I grab some tools and start testing wires, cutting them out if they're completely dead.

"Did you parents encourage you to go into it?"

I laugh. "Not exactly. They vere surprised by my interest-"

"And talent I'm sure" she smiles at me.

"...if that's vhat you call it." I blush again. "They vere uneasy about me going into space for so long. They vanted me to be an engineer and stay in my country to be close to them. But they came around after I left. They video call me on my PADD a lot. How about you?" Too late. I said it and I knew what happened and wanted to take it back. I could see her face change a bit.

"Well it wasn't easy. My people didn't fully appreciate my mother, Spock and I. They couldn't see our full potential because of who we were. Spock was right though. Starfleet was the most logical option. Mother was supportive but worried. Father.....emotionless I guess you'd say, as you could imagine. He advised against it was all he could say. Probably wanted me to stay with mother..." I can hear her choke the last word.

I can't help but feel guilt for a multitude of things. Bringing it up for one. But of all people that had to bring it up, me, whose job it was to save her.

"I'm so sorry Cassie...I didn't mean to-"

"It's ok. I'm fine....wait...there's a piece of something here...OWW!"

"Vhat's wrong?! Vhat is it?!"

She pulls her finger out from behind a bunch of tangled wires. It's covered in blood and has something sticking out of it.

"Aye! Are you ok?!" I look closer at her finger.

"It hurts OW is there a first aid kit down here?"

Thinking way too fast, I pull her up "we'll just go see Bones to make sure you're ok."

"Wait, Bones?! That sounds worse. I don't think my injury went to my bone, I'm fine-"

"No no no, not your bone, Bones. He's chief medical officer and a good friend of mine. C'mon. It's not too far."

"Uhm ok, if you say so.."