What's Past_ The Future Begins (Book 2) - Michael Schuster [3]
“Scotty…this is amazing,” La Forge said, finally stepping out of the doorway. As Scotty crossed into the office as well, and the doors closed behind him, La Forge noticed they had done so with the pneumatic swish characteristic, once again, of the time period.
“Thank you, lad,” said Scotty. He stepped past La Forge to the “lounge” half of the room, where he sat himself down. The other engineer picked a seat across from him. “When I finally decided to take the job as head of the S.C.E. back in March, I determined the first thing I would do is make myself an office I would be comfortable in.”
Scotty reached for a squat table next to him, grabbing a bottle and a couple of glasses. As he poured the drink—Scotch, La Forge presumed—into the glasses, Scotty continued. “Everythin’s fully functional, even the computer disks. They’re really isolinear chips with a casing around them so they work in my ‘antique’ adapted reader.” He shook his head. “You don’t know how many antique dealers tried to peddle off bad merchandise. One tried to tell me his twenty-second-century desktop monitor was from my time. Sure, it was three-sided, but that doesn’t mean it was what I wanted.”
La Forge grimaced as Scotty handed him the drink; it was Scotch, all right, and despite the other engineer’s repeated efforts, he had yet to develop a taste for it. “You seem to be enjoying yourself, Scotty.”
“Oh, that I am, lad, that I am,” said Scotty, quickly downing his own cup of the drink. “I definitely made the right move when I accepted Ross’s offer.”
La Forge took a tentative sip of his cup. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. Since the last time I saw you, you’ve left the Sovereign, become head of the S.C.E., quit the job and Starfleet from what I hear, and returned in the same capacity. What is up with that?”
Scotty chuckled. “It’s quite a tale, Geordi.” He drank some more Scotch. “I’d like to tell it to you, but it’s a wee bit classified in parts.” Scotty paused for a moment. “Ah, hell, what’s that between friends?”
La Forge shrugged. “Your secrets will be safe with me.”
“Of that, I have no doubt, lad.” Scotty finished off his glass, and began pouring another. “In the final months of the Dominion War, I was tapped by Admiral Ross to take over the Corps of Engineers from John. A couple months after takin’ my new position, I found myself called away from Earth by a very young laddie and his shuttlecraft, to be taken to the U.S.S. Gorkon. Her commandin’ officer required me to help her humor some new alien friends…”
Situational Engineering
Stardate 52612.6
August 2375, Old Earth Time
Once the delegation materialized on the surface of Kropasar, inside a very nice-looking gathering hall, Scotty immediately lost sight of the others who’d transported down with him—except for Admiral Nechayev. Before he had quite acquired his bearings in the massive room, she was pulling him face-to-face with his first Kropaslin.
The Kropaslin were not normal humanoids by any stretch of the imagination. To Scotty’s eyes, they resembled tall, bipedal lizards with feathers and a high forehead. They had four short arms which they usually kept close by their bodies, almost as if to protect themselves. Their most peculiar attribute was the complete lack of any visual organs. In any case, Scotty didn’t spot any, even though he did look hard. In fact, the only sensory organ he could make out was their nose, which sported huge nostrils where other beings had their eyes, and they opened and closed in quick intervals.
They possessed feathers, or at least something that looked like feathers. Most of them grew on their head, around the nostrils, although the Kropaslin’s arms also sported a few. This particular one did not even come up to Scotty’s shoulders, though looking around he noticed there were several taller ones about. All of them were clothed, which was a blessing.
“Captain Scott, this is Bendalion Iamor, a thane in the Kropaslin Witenagemot,