What's Past_ The Future Begins (Book 2) - Michael Schuster [20]
While the bar was open until six in the morning, Scotty’s shift ended earlier. Usually he left the ER at twelve; sometimes he stayed on for another couple of hours. Occasionally, he even placed himself on a stool at the bar, watching the bartenders draw their drinks. That Guinan woman he’d met on the Enterprise—the Enterprise s, plural, to be exact—would fit right in here.
Tonight, he got home at about one, tired and a bit dizzy from all the welcome drinks he’d organized for new guests (of course he’d had to drink some himself; it simply wouldn’t do to let the guests down them alone). When he unlocked the front door by voice command, he experienced a short memory flash, as if something in his mind had been activated by an unknown stimulus.
Not only did he suddenly remember the two Kropaslin, but also every bit about the mission to Kropasar last year, the repercussions of said mission, his decision to wander once more, and the call for help from the Risian officials.
It seemed there was no escaping the past, no matter how hard he tried. A Takaran spiced ale seemed to be in order, as it would enable him to accept the inevitable onslaught of regret, anger, and general helplessness.
Belunis had not been very fond of his drinking habit at all. She was of the opinion that he was an alcoholic, but she was mistaken. If anything, he appreciated the taste of alcoholic drinks, but he did not imbibe them for the single reason that they contained alcohol.
The most important thing was the taste. The alcohol was just a nice side effect. That blasted synthehol those greedy little cheaters had introduced a few years before his return to a physical existence just wasn’t good enough, and he’d told a great number of people what he thought about that Ferengi swill.
“Light.”
The computer obeyed and illuminated the interior of the bungalow Montgomery Scott had occupied for the past two months. It was not as spacious as the one he had lived in after he moved out of his parents’ house, but it was more than just acceptable. Most important, there were enough shelves for all the engineering textbooks, technical manuals, starship guides, and engineering briefs that he’d collected over the years. It was a quite impressive collection, and it moved with him whenever he changed residences. Those books had been in Aberdeen—albeit in not so great a number—first in his room on the second floor of his family’s house, then in his flat; they had been in his room on the San Francisco campus, and they also had been in his quarters on all the Enterprise s. He’d even taken them with him when he’d moved into his sister’s house just some months before he boarded the Jenolen. Thank goodness he’d left them there when he left for the retirement colony, otherwise they’d be so much debris on the side of a Dyson sphere right now.
There was a small hallway that led from the entrance to the back of the building, with two rooms on either side of it. It contained a row of coat hangers as well as a clothing replicator integrated into the wall also containing a com panel and computer access. The first room on the left was his office/bedroom; opposite it was the bungalow’s kitchen, whose reduced size was due to the big living room adjacent to it. The final, fourth room was the bathroom, which contained a sonic shower and a real bathtub, a toilet and an Antedean soaking spot.
The bungalow was small, especially if one compared it to some of the others Scotty had been offered by Quincy, but it was perfectly suited to his needs. A single man did not need as much space as two people did. Belunis had never mentioned moving in with him, nor suggested he move in with her. Scotty had the feeling it wasn’t only because their relationship had not lasted long enough to give her a chance to think about this major step, it was also because Belunis wasn’t the type for such relationships.