Relics - Michael Jan Friedman [43]
All except for Spock, of course. But then, he was smiling too. He was just doing it on the inside.
“What a pack of bloody actors!” he exclaimed, and their smiles widened even more. “An’ how long have ye been planning this?”
Kirk shrugged, stealing a conspiratory glance at McCoy. “Not very long,” he said. “Only since about your last anniversary.”
Scott looked at the first officer. “An’ how did they corral ye into this, Mr. Spock? I thought Vulcans didnae know how to deceive.”
Spock cocked an eyebrow. “We know how,” he explained simply. “We simply choose not to-unless there is no other option.” He cast a withering glance about the bridge. “And believe me,” he told Scott, completely deadpan, “on this occasion, there was no other option left open to me.”
That brought peals of laughter from all assembled. And before they died down, Uhura had come over from her communications station.
She put an arm around Scott and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Many happy returns Scotty,” she told him, her breath as sweet as toffee.
Scott could feel his face burning with embarrassment, just as it had burned the first time she’d graced him with that celebratory kiss. Fondly, he recalled another time Uhura had wanted to kiss him-and in an entirely different way.
“Thank ye, lass,” he told her. “That was the best gift of all.”
“Thanks a lot,” said Sulu. “And what are we? Dim sum?”
“That’s right,” Chekov chimed in. “You think it vas easy to program the viewscreen to do that? Especially vithout tipping you off?”
Scott conceded their points. “I thank ye all,” he said. “For this.” He indicated the splendidly wrought message on the viewer. “And for being the best friends a man could wish for.”
Kirk nodded approvingly. “Well said, Mr. Scott.”
“Indeed,” said McCoy. “And now, before this gets any more maudlin than it has already, I think it’s high time we had some cake.”
In the course of the high time that followed, little of that cake was consumed-much to the chief medical officer’s chagrin. As it turned out, McCoy was right. He was a doctor and not a baker.
But that didn’t stop any of them from having a good time. So good a time, in fact, that Montgomery Scott would remember it fondly for the rest of his life. And then, just as the party wound down so they could devote their attention to docking at Starbase Nine, Jim Kirk escorted him back to his bridge station.
“Scotty …” the captain began.
“Aye, sir?” Scott responded, taking his seat. He couldn’t remember exactly what Kirk had said to him at this point, but he looked forward to hearing it again. After all, the captain was one of the brightest men Scott had ever had the honor to know.
“Scotty,” Kirk began again. “About that bottle…”
Before the captain could finish his thought, he suddenly froze in place-as the holodeck doors opened and admitted another starship captain. A captain of the Enterprise, in fact. However, this one was in command of the Enterprise, known by the suffix D.
As the doors swooshed closed behind him, Picard looked around at the bridge and its occupants. Then he turned to Scott and smiled apologetically.
“I hope I’m not interrupting,” said the captain. “I was just coming off-duty and I wanted to see how you were doing.”
“No problem at all,” said Scott. He indicated his former comrades with a sweep of his arm. “These are the men and women I used to serve with.”
Picard nodded. “Yes. I surmised as much.” His gaze seemed to fix on Jim Kirk. “And that was your captain, I take it?”
The older man nodded. “He was indeed. James T. Kirk. I hope ye’ve heard of him-‘cos if nae, there’s something very wrong with yer history tapes.”
Picard smiled. “I have heard of James Kirk … even before I took charge of the Enterprise.” Steely-eyed, he appraised the captain-even as Kirk seemed to return the scrutiny. “Though somehow,” Picard continued, “I always pictured him as being somewhat taller.”
Scott grunted, instinctively leaping to his friend’s defense. “He was big enough to blaze a trail from Earth to the limits of the galaxy, I can tell ye that.”
Again, Picard smiled. Not