2.12 - Montgomery Scott

~~*~~

As Cali continued working at his station, his back faced to the rest of the bridge, he could hear Sulu and Chekov call back to their Captain. Just as Spock thanked the two men, Bones came off of the turbolift and walked over to the Vulcan. "You wanted to see me?"

At his voice, Spock turned his head to look up at the doctor. "Yes, Doctor." Spock replied, standing up to talk to him. As he did, he turned to look at the Polyvore at his workstation and called to him, "Cadet Caliaire?"

Cali quickly stopped what he was doing and swivelled round in his chair so that he could face the two men, "Yes Captain?"

Spock motioned for Cali to join the two of them as they began walking round the back of the bridge, so Cali quickly got up from his seat and followed, walking next to Bones behind the Vulcan. As Cali did, Spock spoke to the two of them. "I am aware that James Kirk is a friend of yours. I recognize that supporting me as you did must have been difficult."

"Is that a thank you?" Bones questioned in annoyed disbelief, sharing a look with Cali next to him as they followed their captain.

"I am simply acknowledging your difficulties." Spock corrected, "And I wanted to apologise for speaking out of turn to you Cadet."

"You don't need to apologise, I understand Captain." Cali replied, his tone rather hollow in contrast to his soft smile once again placed on his lips.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Bones asked.

"I welcome it." Spock replied, coming to a stop at the corner of the bridge where no one was working and turning to face the two he had following him.

"Do you? Okay, then." Bones paused for a moment before he lowered his voice to a whisper and his tone turned far less friendly. "Are you out of your Vulcan mind?"

"Bones!" Cali scolded quietly, looking at his friend in slight disbelief. He knew Spock told him he could speak freely, but that still wasn't something to say to your captain, especially not on the public bridge.

Bones ignored Cali as if he hadn't heard him and continued on, "Are you making the logical choice sending Kirk away? Probably. But the right one? You know, back home we got a saying. 'If you're gonna ride in the Kentucky Derby, you don't leave your prize stallion in the stable'."

"A curious metaphor, Doctor," Spock replied, his head tilted slightly in thought, "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. That's his boyfriend you shot off to a potentially dangerous planet."

"Bones..." Cali whispered, placing a hand on Bones' shoulder to try and calm him down. He appreciated him looking out for him but didn't think it was really his place to bring Jim and his relationship into it.

"I am aware Doctor. However, the cadet is also aware of the reasoning behind it." Spock replied, looking briefly from the doctor to the cadet to see Cali looking into his eyes with a resigned expression and a comforting smile. "I intend to assist in the effort to re-establish communication with Starfleet. However, if crew morale was better served by my roaming the halls weeping, I will gladly defer to your medical expertise. Excuse me."

Bones and Cali watched as Spock walked past the two of them in the direction of the turbolift, where another Vulcan had just entered the bridge. Once they were out of sight, Bones turned around, mumbling under his breath as he rolled his eyes. "Green-blooded hobgoblin."

Cali heard the insult and quickly gave him a small glare. "Don't be rude Bones."

Bones looked at Cali in disbelief. How could he defend the Vulcan after what he had done? "How can you be so calm right now?" Bones questioned incredulously.

"I'm not." Cali snapped back quickly with a slight disappointed glare before turning around to go back to his work without another word.

"Cali..." Bones called back sadly. Of course, Cali wasn't calm. He shouldn't have assumed any different.

~~*~~

Meanwhile, Spock Prime had safely led Jim through the desolate snowy wastelands to the Starfleet research station that was stationed on Delta Vega. When they had arrived and were led inside by a short green alien, however, they were both shocked to find an angry Scotsman shouting at them for being late.

Spock immediately recognised the face of the angry Scotsman as Montgomery Scott, though obviously much younger than he had last seen him. Spock truly found it fascinating how the universe worked. The crew of the Enterprise shouldn't have been on their ship for another few years, yet the universe seemed to be putting them all together as they should be. Jim had already confirmed that Caliaire and his past self were on the Enterprise. And now they had their famous chief engineer, Scotty, coincidentally on the planet that he and Jim had been stranded on, right when they need him. Although Chekov, Sulu, Uhura and McCoy had not been mentioned, Spock liked to assume they were already aboard, especially if the universe truly was trying to fix itself. It was their destiny for the crew to be together.

Once the introductions were out of the way, including Jim introducing Spock as from the future, the trio, and a small unfamiliar alien Scotty had called Keenser, made their way to the station's transportation area, led by the Scotsman.

The transport area was, in a quick sum up, a complete and utter state. It was full of lots of random scrap metal items, any surface available was used as a work surface, since neither Spock nor Jim could see an actual work bench anywhere visible, and close to one of the corners of the room was an old Starfleet shuttle that somehow looked in worse state than the rest of the room.

"Well, she's a wee bit dodgy. Shield emitters are totally banjaxed, as well as a few other things." Scotty explained, gesturing to the shuttle as he led the men inside. "On youse go. So, the Enterprise has had its maiden voyage, has it? She is one well-endowed lady. I'd like to get my hands on her ample nacelles, if you'll pardon the engineering parlance."

As they stepped inside, they thankfully noted that the inside of the shuttle had been taken care of a lot better than the outside, or the rest of the area surrounding it. It was fairly clean, and the technology and consoles worked, even if it did look several years out of date, especially in comparison to the Enterprise.

As soon as they entered, Spock got to using a console, taking a seat in front of it, in order to input Scotty's equation for transwarp beaming.

While he did this, Scotty just kept talking, reminding Spock of his time back on the Enterprise, his Enterprise, when Kirk asked Scotty to do the impossible. "Except, the thing is, even if I believed you, right, where you're from, what I've done, I don't, by the way, you're still talking about beaming aboard the Enterprise while she's traveling faster-than-light, without a proper receiving pattern." As Scotty continued his rant, pacing around the shuttle, he interrupted himself to scold Keenser, who had taken a seat on the metal pipes that separates the two old fashioned transport pads near Jim. "Get off there! It's not a climbing frame." Jim looked at the shorter alien, first wondering how he had even gotten up so high, before stepping over and assisting him down, both of them ignoring Scotty as he went back to his rant to Spock. "The notion of transwarp beaming is like, trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse. What's that?"

"Your equation for achieving transwarp beaming."

"Get out of it." Scotty mumbled to himself, sitting down and leaning in close to the console so he could scrutinise what the Vulcan had written. And then he saw it and he was shocked and surprised, letting out a breath as he jaw slowly dropped. "Imagine that. It never occurred to me to think of space as the thing that was moving."

Jim, ignoring his new company again, as much as he found the man entertaining, approached the elder Spock uncertainly. "You're coming with us, right?"

"No, Jim." Spoke denied as he turned to face his old friend, "That is not my destiny."

"Your dest..." Jim's words stumbled in disbelief and a slight scoff at the idea, "He... the other Spock is not going to believe me. Only you can explain what's gonna happen."

"Under no circumstances, can he be aware of my existence. You must promise me this." Spock interrupted, needing to get his point across. He needed Jim and his younger self to do this on their own.

"You're telling me I- I- I can't tell you that I'm following your own orders. Why not? What happens?"

"Jim, this is one rule you cannot break. To stop Nero, you alone must take command of your ship."

"How? Over your dead body?" Jim asked in annoyance, not understanding why the hell Spock couldn't come to tell Spock, the other Spock, what he had told him. "Cali isn't going to like that." He mumbled to himself as an afterthought, not realising that Spock could hear, nor that he smiled at the mention of the Polyvore.

"Preferably not. However, there is Starfleet regulation six-one-nine. Six-one-nine states that any command officer who's emotionally compromised by the mission at hand, must resign said command." Spock explained seriously.

Jim blinked, stuttering over his words again, not liking the idea of that. As much as he had liked bantering with the Vulcan, it had been for a harmless rise of emotion, not... "So, so you're saying that I have to emotionally compromise you guys?"

"Jim, I just lost my planet. I can tell you; I am emotionally compromised." Spock admitted making Jim freeze again. "What you must do is get me to show it."

"Aye then, Laddie. Live or die, let's get this over with." Scotty interrupted.

Jim stared at Spock a moment longer before turning around and stepping into the second pad, still looking troubled.

As Spock moved over to the console, Jim leaned on the bars and called to him. "You're coming back in time, changing history, it's cheating."

Spock nodded, a nostalgic smile gracing his aged features, "A trick I learned from an old friend." Jim watches him thoughtfully as Spock presses some buttons on the console. As the transport begins to activate, he turns back to Jim and holds up his hand, separating his fingers into the Vulcan salute.

"Live long and prosper."

~~*~~

Sorry for not doing the entirety of their interaction with Scotty on the planet, I didn't think it was necessary since it would have been an exact copy of  the movie and wasn't the most plot relevant.

Also, I just wanted to state that, while Spock Prime and Cali Prime and Cali Prime and Kirk Prime were dating, I've purposefully left Spock Prime and Kirk Prime's relationship open so you can decide whether they were also dating or just friends.