What's Past_ The Future Begins (Book 2) - Michael Schuster [40]
“I beg your pardon?” said Scotty, not quite understanding what he was going on about.
“The fact of the matter is that I’m not all that comfortable with talking to heads of state. You, on the other hand, seem to have a bit of experience with that.”
“Not as much as you’d think, Captain, but yes, you’re right.”
“The captain is always right,” Loxx said, laughing. He turned to the Tiburonian standing at the tactical console. “Open a channel, Lieutenant Ramaijif.”
The large man nodded. “Shouldn’t take too long, sir. It’s not as easy as shooting things, but it’s not that hard.”
Loxx waved Scotty over to where he was sitting in the center of the bridge. “Ignore Ramaijif,” he said as Scotty stood up and crossed the bridge. “He’s been moaning ever since the Fleet decided to make the tactical officer responsible for communications.”
“I have managed to open a channel to the high cyning of the Witenagemot,” Ramaijif reported just as Scotty reached the area in the center of the bridge.
Loxx stood up and gestured graciously to his now empty seat. “It’s all yours.”
Scotty sat down. Nice, he thought. It seemed that after centuries of spaceflight, Starfleet had finally developed a comfortable captain’s chair. Loxx nodded to Ramaijif, and the distinctive face of a Kropaslin appeared on the main viewscreen. “This is Captain Montgomery Scott of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers,” he said.
The Kropaslin answered back, the sound of her voice revealing her to be a female. “I am Sunanios Gilvatac, high cyning of the Kropaslin Witenagemot. I take it you are here to begin the promised relief efforts?”
Scotty realized he recognized her; she had been one of the members of the Agreement Party there on that fateful night. “Aye, ma’am.” He knew enough diplomacy not to call a head of state “lassie,” at any rate. “We’re here to provide whatever technological help we can, startin’ with the weather modification net.” Maintenance of the net had been one of the casualties of the collapse of the Kropaslin government, and now drought was raging across several continents.
“Thank you, Captain Scott. All of Kropasar will be in your debt—this government has only been up and running for a few weeks now, and just the news that the Federation was sending aid went a long way in establishing our credibility with the public.”
“It’s only fair,” said Scotty, “given what the Federation’s rejection of your membership did before.”
“None of us could have foreseen that chain of events,” said Gilvatac sadly. “No one.”
Scotty quickly glanced at a readout below the main screen. “The Akarana should be entering orbit in thirty minutes,” he said.
“I look forward to seeing you again,” said Gilvatac. “Witenagemot out.”
Her image was replaced by the stars streaking by, their light split up in rainbow colors, as the Akarana sped toward her destination. Scotty was eager to repair the damage caused by the previous visit of a Starfleet ship and almost couldn’t wait to set foot on Kropaslin soil.
There was just so much to do.
Monty Scott in the
24th-and-a-half Century!
A Timeline of Scotty’s post-“Relics” Journey
In writing The Future Begins, we found it necessary to weave together the bits and pieces various novels, eBooks, comics, and short stories had given us about Scotty’s life in the twenty-fourth century into one continuous narrative. Previously, we had only received snapshots of his journey; our goal was to combine these into a coherent whole, and The Future Begins would serve as the culmination of this whole.
The following timeline lays out what we know of Scotty’s twenty-fourth-century (and beyond) odyssey. Not everything is here: we tried to fit what would work together, and not every story can. Indeed, it is possible that not everything that is here works together without contradiction, but we tried our best.
Thanks to Geoff “Wersgor” Hamell for his assistance in compiling this timeline.
Bracketed abbreviations: TOS=original Star Trek. TNG=The Next Generation. NF=New Frontier. SCE=Starfleet Corps of Engineers. SNW#=Strange New