Timelines : The Wanderer

Chapter 1 : 10

A few weeks have passed and apart from finishing surveying the nebula not much has happened. Well apart from the few skirmishes of course. I haven't caused all of them, I swear! It seems that being in deep space has put strain on us all. Scotty is still trying to work out how I managed to improve his brand new ship, and I will keep him guessing. One cannot let their secrets become uncovered can they? Progress with the salvage is slow. Hopefully if all goes to plan I may have something working over the next week.

The Captain has finally let me see the bridge for the first time. It's very functional and surprisingly it looks rather good too. I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb. I believe that is the correct saying, English is a funny language. Pretty much everyone has a uniform of one colour or another, and all I can wear is a black one. It's that or my purple top and boots. I am not particularly keen on either.

"Here's your report on the efficiency on the warp core power output." Kiera hands the PADD to Kirk when she finds him walking to the bridge.

"So the engine." He glances at the screen seeing a perfectly set out report. "God, you like keeping everything official don't you. Everything must be filed and reported." He smiles, her unexpected proficiency on reports often means he gets them hours or days early. They are often quite long as she doesn't miss anything. As much as Kirk likes having reports he really can't be arsed to read all of it.

"I thought that was what was expected on the flagship of the fleet. If I am mistaken then-"

"No, no this is fine, I just don't get things early very often." He glances through the report barely looking at the figures. "I have been meaning to talk to you about your request."

"Yes, I have doing the jobs that engineering officers do, to expectation. I would be able to fulfil most science postings to satisfaction as well." Kirk stops her before she could make any more reasons for her appointment.

"I have been talking with Spock and he decided that he would be happy to have you in the astrophysics department." He eyes light up as she started to comprehend what he was saying.

"Happy?"

"To quote," he clears his throat. "Due to the reports that I have been given, I have concluded that Kiera would bring advanced knowledge that would be useful to the proficiency of the astrophysics department." They both start laughing.

"Does that mean I get to wear the blue uniform?" Kirk nods, and Kiera quickly walks down another corridor, briskly to her quarters. As soon as the doors shut, she cheers and leaps into the air in excitement.

Not long after, Kiera walks out of her quarters parading around in her blue dress with short sleeves and her black knee length boots. She walks along the Enterprise corridors and takes a look in the astrophysics room.

It had a dome shape centre with rooms leading off on each side. The centre was dark to help with your perception of the display that would be projected from the console in the middle. Her fingers brush over the screen and the darkness is lit by a beautiful display of stars and planets. This is what she fell in love with when she looked up at the stars, centuries ago. She would sit outside for hours staring at the stars trying to fathom their beauty. All she wanted to do was travel up into the sky, to touch the watchers of her life. The same delight was painted on her face as she was surrounded by her constant companions. These companions spurred her to learn, to find ways to travel between them that people didn't know were possible.

She notices a small blue and white planet in the centre of the display orbiting a small star. She enlarges the image.

"That is Earth." She looks around and finds she is not alone. The darkened figure walks forward so that the image lit his features. "It is also known as Sol 3 and was one of the founders of the federation, along with Vulcan and Andoria." Spock looks at the display as he had many times before, with cold logic. But Kiera could see something in his eyes, a glimmer of emotion that was just breaking through, but as soon as it appeared, it vanished. Suppressed.

Author's note: you may have noticed that I have used the same picture on the book cover at the top. I thought this picture best represented Kiera looking at the stars.