Timelines : The Wanderer

Chapter 1 : 7

Kiera wandered along the Enterprise's corridors relishing the feeling of being free for the first time in centuries. She managed to compare Stardates to calculate that she was in the pod for approximately 493 years, give or take a month. So naturally her legs were still getting used to walking again. Her balance also needed some work but that would come in time. She managed to procure some clothes from the replicator in her quarters, and although they were not as accurate as she wanted them to be, the clothes fitted rather well. She had a fondness for purple which showed in her choice of top; her black trousers and brown leather boots completed her stylish look. It didn't conform to the fashion of the time but it looked nice and that was all she needed.

She bumps into a person in the corridor. During this time, she had not been aware of her surroundings. "Sorry," she smiles at her own clumsiness. She looks up and sees an officer in a yellow uniform. "You are a command officer aren't you?" He smiles.

"Navigation officer Pavel Chekov." They both start walking in the corridor. "Where were you going?" He politely asks. She ponders this as she walks into a turbo lift.

"Umm, Hanger Bay 1." Chekov presses the corresponding button and also presses the one to head to engineering. She looks slightly confused but doesn't say anything.

Chekov senses her confusion and responds. "I also help Mr Scott in engineering." Kiera smiles as her brain works out what he said. His accent was presenting problems for her. "I haven't seen you before on this ship. Who are you?"

She pauses. "My name is Kiera; I arrived yesterday." The Turbo lift doors open spurring Chekov to leave.

"Nice talking to you Kiera!" He strides out into engineering and is quickly met by Mr Scott. The doors close and the lift quickly moves into action. She sighs. But before she can contemplate her existence in this begotten universe the doors open, and she finds herself in a large room. There were shuttles of different sizes and specialities surrounding her. She eyes over the objects in the room until her eyes glide over a familiar object. She walks over to it making sure that she looked like she knew what she what she was doing. A few officers look over but were not suspicious. The pod was in worse shape than she imagined. The metal was bent in ways that she thought weren't possible in these circumstances. Her hand follows the contours that the damage has left being careful not to cut her hand on the shards. She finds the lock mostly intact apart from the apparent forcing open that was probably carried out by Mr Scott.

She pulls the door open and begins to look for something. She couldn't find it so she looks further into the pod examining every centimetre.

"What the hell are you doing there lassie?" Scotty walks in to start his efficiency report when he sees half a body dangling out of the out of bounds to all personnel without clearance pod. He abandons his report and rushes over. Kiera tries to pull herself out of the pod but a piece of metal snags on her top. She briefly gets stuck and after she frees herself she looks up at the engineers bearing down on her.

"Am I not allowed to look inside my own pod? Mr Scott." She looks at him. His eyes widen as he starts to recognise her face. "I thought so." She ignores his expression and takes out her dagger from the inside of her boot. (She managed to recover this after her episode in sick bay by quickly taking it from one of the security officers while they weren't looking.) She then proceeds to look inside the capsule. She finds what she was looking for. It was still gleaming after 400 years. She reaches for it but in doing so she had to pull herself further into the pod, with her legs being the only things visible to Mr Scott, she starts to pull at the leather surrounding her prize. It was stuck, wrapped around a shard of bent metal. She tries to hack away at it but it was no use, it was too thick.

Kiera pulls herself out of the pod, being careful not to get snagged on the alloy shards. "Do you have a torch? You know something to cut with." His eyes widen.

"That's Starfleet property! You can't just hack away at it!" An ensign had overheard the conversation and had already handed Kiera a cutting laser. She nods a thank you.

"What? So everything you find you claim even when it still has the occupant inside." She activates it to assess its usefulness and after doing so she proceeds back inside. Scotty just stands and watches unable to affect her decision. He hears the laser start to cut away at the metal. This was the last straw. He runs off and calls security.

The laser breaks through the metal. She pulls the object out being careful not to scratch the leather. She hops out of the pod and begins to put on the leather straps, one around the lower part of her right thigh and the other round her waist. When she had just finished kitting herself out she looks up to find herself surrounded by security guards.

She looks down at her weapon, positively gleaming under the bright lights of the hanger. It looked beautiful. She smiles, wrapping my fingers around the handle.

Now I feel almost complete...