"Well, ain't that just swell." Bones grumbled, being the first to break the quiet that had settled over the meeting room. "But how the hell do we reverse it? I don't want to be stuck being a freakin' kid again." His voice cracked.
"Maybe we could go back through the nebula, thingy." Captain Kirk suggested.
Chekov shook his head, his curls flopping back and forth. "Zat ez unlikely to haff any effect." He told them. "Passing through ze nebula at ze same speed would only replicate the process and not undo it."
Spock gave a curt not. "Ensign Chekov is correct."
"So we're stuck this way?" Bones demanded.
An uncomfortable silence hung in the room as the meaning of those words began to register with its occupants. Captain Kirk looked at his crew, at the kids, staring at him in expectation of an answer. An answer he did not have. If they were stuck like that, Starfleet would take away the ship. Everyone would lose the positions they had worked so hard for and everything they had done, every action in their mission, would be for nothing. What could he possibly say to remedy that?
He took a deep breath, hoping the words would just come to him as they always did. He was about to speak when suddenly there was a whining sound and the large plant in the corner deflated. Seconds later, it sunk to the ground, landing with a loud splat and turning into nothing more than an oozing pile of jelly.
Captain Kirk cleared his throat. "That was already having trouble before we got here."
"Ooh!" Chekov piped, excitedly raising his hand.
They waited for him to speak, but he didn't. "Yes, Mr. Chekov?" Captain Kirk prompted.
"I haff an idea!"
Captain Kirk waited on him to proceed.
Chekov lowered his hand, a huge grin on his face. "If we were to rewerse our course through ze nebula, it could rewerse ze unaging process!"
"I thought you said we can't go back through that thing?" Bones asked.
Chekov shook his head. "No! Not go back through, but rewerse it!" With a frustrated sigh, he turned on a screen and grabbed a mechanical stylus, beginning to write a series of equations. "You see, ze bombardment of molecules will be hitting at an opposite angle zen prewiously and could theoretically-"
"Reverse any and all effects," Spock finished.
"Exactly!" Chekov nodded.
"However, if we do not pass through the same center of gravity there could be serious ramifications." Spock said in addition.
"If we were goin' at around warp factor eight that would reverse the polarity!" Scotty added.
"But with our current position, it ez off by a factor of point-four-six-nine." Chekov told him. "We need to somehow adjust it without compromising the mathematical integrity of our positioning."
"Perhaps the mathematical relationship is merely relative and provides no absolute one-to-one ration." Spock suggested.
Bones looked at the crew members as they went back and forth with their calculations. "Anyone else completely lost."
Captain Kirk raised his hand.
Bones stood. "Well I'm going to go sit by him."
Chekov altered an equation and grinned. "Zere!" He shouted proudly, admiring his handiwork. "Zis should work!"
"Good work, Mr. Chekov!" Captain Kirk said, uncertain as to anything that just happened.
"Here, let me see." Scotty said, trying to take the stylus from Chekov.
"No! Zis ez mine!" Chekov protested, holding the stylus away. "Get your own!"
Scotty struggled to reach it as Chekov held it just out of his grasp. "It is my turn!" Scotty argued.
"No!" Chekov tried to push the older boy away.
"Um." Captain Kirk watched in confusion.
"This could be problematic." Spock noted as he observed the two fighting.
Bones made a face. "You two are a damn nuisance."
"Spock, what's happening?" Captain Kirk demanded.
Spock looked nervously around. "It seems we have not only physically regressed, but behaviorally regressed as well."
Captain Kirk watched in slight horror as he saw what was happening to his crew. "Uh-oh, that can't be good."
"No it cannot." Spock agreed.
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