Daughter of the Stars

In Motion

Stardate 2258.42

"Warp three, sir," Sulu relayed.

"Course one-five-one, mark three," Chekov supplemented, "Laurentian System, sir."

"Thank you, gentlemen," Spock said, still looking forward.

McCoy entered the bridge and made his way towards Spock.

"You wanted to see me?" McCoy asked.

"Yes, Doctor," Spock said, standing from his seat. He started to move away from the center of the room, "I am aware that Jim Kirk is a friend of yours. I recognize that supporting me as you did must have been difficult."

"Is that a 'thank you'?" McCoy asked.

Although they were away from where Sala was standing, Vulcans had heightened senses of hearing comparative to humans. This allows her to still hear the conversation between Spock and McCoy.

"I am simply acknowledging your difficulties," Spock replied.

"Permission to speak freely, sir," McCoy requested.

"I welcome it."

"Do you? Okay, then. Are you out of your Vulcan mind? Are you making a logical choice sending Kirk away? Probably. But the right one? You know, back home we got this saying. 'If you're gonna ride in the Kentucky Derby, you don't leave your prized stallion in the stable.'"

"A curious metaphor, Doctor, as a stallion must first be broken before it can reach its potential."

"My God, man. You could at least act like it was a hard decision! I could tell from what happened earlier that I'm not the only one who has had some choice words on the matter."

"I intend to assist in the effort to re-establish communications with Starfleet. However, if crew morale is better served by my roaming the halls weeping, I will gladly differ to your medical expertise," Spock paused as his father entered the bridge, "Excuse me."

"Green-blooded hobgoblin," McCoy muttered.

Sala simply let out a sigh and continued to monitor the happening of the bridge.

Meanwhile, Jim was walking once again across the snow planes of Delta Vega. This time though, he was walking with, who he was now referring to as Spock and Sala's "Prime Counterparts" since apparently the reality he existed in was a splintered off version of their reality.

After walking for some time, the Starfleet outpost that was on Delta Vega came into view. It was approached, and the door hauled open. Spock Prime and Sala Prime walked into the base before he pulled the door closed behind them, shutting out the snow.

The hall was dimly lit in a green light and a voice could be heard from the other end, but the words could not be distinguished.

"Hello?" Jim yelled into the outpost.

The sound of something metal being dropped rang through the building. A figure then appeared at the other end of the hallway. It stood there for a moment before running towards Jim, Spock Prime, and Sala Prime. The figure turned out to be an alien of short stature.

The short alien lifted its goggles before looking at the three who had entered the base. It made a motion for them to follow before leading them further into the outpost. The alien led them to a man who had his feet propped up on a desk and his head thrown back. The alien batted at his leg to get his attention.

"What?" The man asked, removing something from across his face. He looked up to see Jim, Spock Prime, and Sala Prime. He drew in a deep breath from his nose before speaking, "You realize how unacceptable this is?"

"Fascinating," Spock Prime said simply.

"What?" Jim asked.

"Okay, I'm sure you're just doin' you're job but could ya not come a wee bit sooner?" The man asked, putting his feet on the ground and reaching for something on the desk, "Six months I've been here livin' off Starfleet protein nibs in the promise of a good meal! And I know exactly what's goin' on here, okay? Punishment, isn't it? Ongoing. For somethin' that was clearly an accident."

"You are Montgomery Scott," Sala Prime concluded.

"You know him?" Jim asked.

"Aye, that's me. You're in the right place," Montgomery Scott answered, "Unless there's another hard workin', equally starved Starfleet officer around."

"Me," The short alien chimed.

"Get aff! Shut up! You don't eat anythin'. You can eat like, a bean, and you're done. I'm talkin' about food. Real food. But you're here now, so thank you. Where is it?"

"You are, in fact, the Mr. Scott who postulated the theory of transwarp beaming," Spock Prime surmised.

"That's what I'm talkin' about. How do you think I wound up here?" Mr. Scott asked, having moved to a different seat that was near by, "Had a little debate with my instructor on the issue of relativistic physics and how it pertains to subspace travel. He seemed to think the range of transportin' something like, a grapefruit, was limited to about a hundred miles. I told him I could not only beam a grape fruit from one planet to the adjacent planet within the same system, which is easy, by the way, I could do it with a life-form. So, I tested it on Admiral Archer's prized beagle," Mr. Scott punctuated his sentence by taking a drink of something.

"I know that dog. What happened to it?" Jim asked.

"I'll tell you when it reappears. I don't know. I do feel guilty about that."

"What if I told you that your transwarp theory was correct, that it is indeed possible to beam aboard a ship that is traveling at warp speed?" Spock Prime asked.

"I think if that equation had been discovered, I would have heard about it."

"The reason you haven't heard of it, Mr. Scott, is because you haven't discovered it yet," Sala Prime supplied.

Mr. Scott was silent for a moment, trying to understand what he had just been told.

He stood from his seat as he started to speak again, "A-Are you from the future?"

"Yeah, they are. I'm not," Jim explained.

"Well that's brilliant. Do they still have sandwiches there?"