On the beach - [Risa Day 4] - [Kirk, Nance, Spot (open)]

[original_fine]

[OOC - Anyone want a crack at him? I don't know who-all's free.]

Sometime after their conversation and nap, Spock had asked Jim and McCoy for the use of the cabin, and they'd complied. Part of him wanted to be there, desperately interested in both the subject covered and in seeing their counterparts, both of whom he had a considerable emotional

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[allmhadadh]

After taking something of a very tentative leap of faith, there wasn't much Scotty could do aside go and finish his sandwich, then try to come to some kind of terms with it. It was a lot harder than his almost casual capitulation would have suggested: He was still terrified. He just happened to be more afraid of losing something potentially good, in this case, than facing something bad.

That left him still jobless, mostly creditless, too battered physically to work and too exhausted emotionally (though not in bad ways) to be all that keyed up. So, he took his paperwork out to the beach with him -- Perera's Theory and the Aberdeen Solution -- and found a quiet spot near some palm trees to sit. He dare not go near the docks again, after the brawl.

He settled into the soft sand, in his black trousers, boots and t-shirt, noting Kirk's familiar face, and Meira near him. He smiled a little to himself at the sight of her, then took another breath, tiredly, and got back to writing and drawing out the rest of his Solution.

[original_fine]

As Jim looked around after Nance, (not finding her), he noted a familiar figure. It took him a moment to place the kid--he hadn't seen Scott since the brig--but once he did, he started over. Still around, that was a good sign.

He stopped several feet away and waved in greeting.

"Mr. Scott?" he said.

[allmhadadh]

He looked up from his paperwork and then got up to his feet. No, it wasn't so much fun to move. But he figured it was respectful, and besides that, he felt a passing little twinge of guilt at taking advantage of Kirk's kindness in the brig, even if he would have done the same again. "Afternoon, sir."

[original_fine]

"Afternoon," he said, waving a hand. "You don't need to get up," but Scott already had. "Neither of us is on duty, and technically neither of us is part of Starfleet."

Jim smiled, as if he didn't remember the incident in the brig. He did, of course. It just wasn't anything he could hold against the man, confused and scared as he must have been. Nothing had been damaged, and he was still here, so no harm done. Jim still didn't know where the kid had been plucked from, so under the circumstances he couldn't say it hadn't been the most reasonable course of action.

"I didn't mean to trouble you," he said, gesturing at Scotty's work. "But I wanted to see how you were faring."

[allmhadadh]

"Still breathin'," he said, then looked down at the set aside paperwork before returning a wry sort of smile at Kirk. "Ended up lost 'ere yerself, then?"

[original_fine]

This was, Jim thought, a marked improvement. Much closer to the Scotty he knew, and that warmed him.

"More or less," he said. Maybe this hadn't been explained to him, or it hadn't come up; Jim had no way of knowing. "I'm the Jim Kirk from another timeline, the captain of another Enterprise. So I'm a fish out of water as well."

[allmhadadh]

He thought about that carefully for a few moments, replaying their brief conversation in the brig. "Another Enterprise?" Some part of Scotty desperately hoped that it was the yet-unnamed 1701 in the San Francisco Fleet Yards. "When was she launched, sir, if ye dinna mind my askin'?"

[original_fine]

"Not at all," he said. This was Scotty, after all, and Jim, too, remembered their conversation in the brig. "2245."

[allmhadadh]

Scotty huffed out a breath of relief, probably because at least somewhere there was a universe gone right and he wasn't the only one who had lived there.

Then he practically beamed. "Right bonnie lass, I'll bet she is. Those Constitution-class ships are somethin' else, aye? I've read everything I could on 'em. I mean, so far we only had th' Constitution herself, but they were talkin' a final order o' fifteen for th' initial production period, an' then there's 1701, 1702 and 1703 up in th' Fleet Yards. I got t' see the Constitution while I was on a shuttle headin' fer a training exercise." He could not help a mildly lovesick sigh. "I dinna think I ever saw a ship so perfect."

[original_fine]

Kirk's smile was genuinely delighted, his heart going out to this lost Mr. Scott. There was an inherent vulnerability, he realized, in meeting younger versions of people you knew. Seemed obvious when you thought about it, but when did one? And even if they weren't the same people, the insight to be gained was considerable.

"The Constitution's all right," he hedged playfully. "For a ship that's not the Enterprise. Oh, Scotty, you'd love her." He blinked. "I'm sorry. I'm used to... May I call you Scotty?"

[allmhadadh]

He blinked in surprise, then laughed. "Aye, by all means, sir. I mean, I dinna promise th' other Montgomery Scott willna answer ye, if ye call fer me usin' that nick, but aye, I dinna mind." He leaned back against the palm tree -- the ship talk made him almost stupidly happy and relieved, but that didn't take away a very long two days -- and just grinned again in general good-humor. "Aye, but I dinna get t' see yer Enterprise except as a whole lot o' ribs an' a keel floatin' in construction. Still, I dinna think ye could go far wrong with any Connie. I mean, they're 'bout the most perfect blend o' classical mechanics an' new innovation I've ever even fathomed." Oh yes, Jim did it. He got the boy talking on ships; getting him to shut up again is a whole other ballgame.

[original_fine]

Jim didn't mind at all. He crouched now, sitting on his heels a few feet away.

"She's a beautiful ship," he confirmed again. "And, no offense to the one up there, but she's got nothing on our girl. There's something almost retro in the styling of this universe, when everyone was concerned with shiny surfaces and busy displays. Not our ship. Just... classy. And what the right man can coax out of her, you wouldn't believe."

So Scott thought he was from their universe. Jim couldn't say, but it didn't hurt as an operating hypothesis. Did that make him "his" Scotty, only young? Or was something else afoot?

If it was his Scott, he'd need to get back eventually. Or the Enterprise would be without one. Unless this represented yet another timeline split... No sense thinking too hard about it, really.

[allmhadadh]

Oh, he liked this guy. If he knew there was another Scotty, he probably would have said it couldn't be him -- else, the other would remember this -- but he certainly was only seven days or so different from Kirk's Chief was at this age. But he practically wanted to tackle this Kirk out of joy that he wasn't the only one seeing the flaws in the tech designs of this universe.

"Aye, exactly! She's so reliant on a computer network an' intangibles that I canna help but think she's an engineerin' disaster waitin' t' happen. I mean, I didna get t' suss her out proper-like, but I spent a few days doin' a lot o' minor repairs an' I canna fathom who came up with her design. It wasna Captain April headin' this project." Scotty didn't know April, but he sure knew who had headed up the Constitution-class design in his own universe. And every single other pertinent fact he could get his hands on. "She's a big ship, but could ye imagine if she lost her computer core? I ken ye can limp one o' our Connies home on impulse, e'en if ye lost

[original_fine]

"That's fine, Scotty," Kirk laughed. "Saves me the trouble, doesn't it, because I agree with you, absolutely. I cannot tell you how many times something's gone wrong on our Enterprise that we've had to re-route and re-structure successfully, all because we could physically maintain the systems ourselves. 'Convenience' is often code for 'something else that can break.' And how can any man know, intimately, every microchip in the computer bank like he can know the schematics and circuitry of his own ship?"

He chuckled.

"You always wanted to be an engineer?"

[allmhadadh]

Scotty grinned a bit at Kirk's initial words, but the question was a loaded one. Probably wouldn't seem like a loaded one, but it was. He sat down, still back to the tree, indian-style and thought about it; a pensive moment. It wasn't really a dangerous question. Just loaded. "In... a way, I guess ye could say I did. I mean, I like workin' with my hands, and I love fixin' things, it's what I do. But I dinna ever think I really had what it took t' be an engineer until that," he gestured to his paperwork. "An' I still ended up on th' Command track anyway." He chuckled, a little ruefully. "How 'bout you? Did ye always want t' be a captain?"

[original_fine]

"For as long as I can remember," Jim said fondly, recalling his childish ambitions--childish, that is, until everyone else saw what he had. There had been some faltering in his own desire, certainly, but that was long over. "You do have what it takes, Mr. Scott," he said. "Believe me. I can tell."