Crossover - Michael Jan Friedman [102]
“Yes, Mister Scott?”
“Ye looked distracted,” the human informed him, his eyes narrowed slightly with concern. “Ye’re all right, are ye nae?”
“I am fine,” the Vulcan assured him. “I apologize if I seemed unattentive for a moment. Appearances to the contrary, I was listening to every word you said.”
Before he could complete his statement, the turbolift swooshed open and their other companion emerged. Nor had McCoy’s advancement in years curbed his willingness to speak his mind.
“I wouldn’t believe him if I were you, Scotty.” The admiral grunted disapprovingly. “Ancient as he is, the man still hasn’t learned any manners. You can’t take him anywhere.”
Spock considered Leonard McCoy, now as wizened and white-haired as any human he had ever seen. The man was doing his best to keep from smiling—with little success.
Even after all these years, he enjoyed provoking his old colleague. In fact, the Vulcan mused, McCoy probably enjoyed it more now, considering he didn’t get the opportunity quite so often anymore.
“I might remind you,” Spock replied, “that I am three years your junior, Doctor.”
“A subject still eminently open to debate,” the admiral grumbled, taking a seat at the burnt-out communications panel.
“What’s more,” said the Vulcan, “as I already indicated to Captain Scott, I heard every word he uttered.” Spock turned to Scotty. “It was then that you intercepted the subspace message concerning my captivity?”
Scotty smiled. “That it was, sir. And having heard it, I could nae sit back and let Starfleet worry about retrievin’ ye.” He looked around cautiously and leaned forward. “Nae while there was someone around who still knew what he was doin’.”
“Make that two of you who knew what you were doing,” McCoy remarked. “I’ve got a newfound respect for that fellow Picard. He may not be Jim Kirk, but he’s all right in my book.”
The Vulcan was reminded of how Sarek had spoken of Picard. “And in mine,” he agreed. “I see now why my father placed so much … trust in him.”
Scotty turned to McCoy. “Dinnae sell yourself short, Doctor. I heard the way ye put two and two together regarding the Stugg and the lack of Romulans patrollin’ the Neutral Zone… .” He shrugged. “If ye had nae thought o’ that, we might all be guests of the proconsul now. And I, for one, have had my fill of his hospitality.”
“It was a most clever ploy,” Spock conceded. “At least, Captain Picard seemed to think so. Nor was there anyone else on the Enterprise who could have executed it.”
The admiral seemed uncomfortable accepting a compliment from his onetime sparring partner. “In other words,” he said crustily, “it pays sometimes to be older than the hills.”
“There are no other words,” the Vulcan answered. “There are only the ones I spoke.”
McCoy harrumphed and pointed a forefinger. “Don’t be so literal, Spock.”
The Vulcan regarded him. “I do not see the value of being otherwise.”
Turning to his other colleague, Spock changed the subject. “I am intrigued by your method of survival in a transporter unit, Captain Scott. I found some of the details in a library file, but they were rather sketchy.”
“And ye want to hear it from the horse’s mouth,” Scott replied proudly. “Well, ye’ve come to the right place. Y’see, we’d gone down, trapped in the Dyson Sphere’s gravity well. The crash had disabled everything except auxiliary life-support and communications—and those systems were failing as well. It did nae look promising, I can tell ye that.
“With the help of another survivor, I melded the transporter’s diagnostic circuits, locking the pattern buffers into a perpetual diagnostic cycle. Then I had the computer cross-connect the phase inducers to the emitter array.”
The Vulcan pictured the maneuvers in his mind. “And by doing so,” he realized, “you created a regenerating power source—which could keep the mechanism operating until assistance arrived.”
“Exactly,” Scott confirmed. “Of course, I did nae expect it to take seventy-five years—but I suppose I should be glad it arrived at all.”
Spock nodded. “Fascinating.”
It made the human smile. “Ye know,”