[video/action]

[candothat]

Enterprise? Do you read?

[A curly-headed boy, almost certainly not out of his teens, frowns at the screen. His words are rendered somewhat incomprehensible by a thick Eastern European accent in spite of his obvious attempts to annunciate.]

Ensign Chekov to bridge. Uhura? Sulu? …Mr. Spock? Chekov to engineering. Mr. Scott, can you hear me? There may have been a... ah, a malfunction with the teleporter.

Can anyone hear me?

[He sighs and fiddles with something on his device. The video feed distorts momentarily before returning to normal. When the teenager speaks again, his tone is low and words less painstakingly produced as if he’s speaking himself.]

Ai, what is this? There shouldn’t be interference this far out from the magnetic anomaly. Eto piz`dets…

Comments

[candothat]

Deities? This, I think, can be explained scientifically without deities or magic. Miss Tessa, these "deities"... do they show themselves? But no, there is time for that later if no time passes on the Enterprise while I am here.

Are we well acquainted, Miss Tessa?

[likeboudica]

They do, at times.

[ Well-acquaintanced? She hesitates briefly. ] You were here only a weekend, so perhaps not. We had coffee and talked of poetry. [ And many other things, such as who, what she is, but he no longer has a memory of that. ]

[candothat]

Are they human?

[He smiles, rather pleased to have a friend in this pocket universe (if that is what it is, but he can ponder that later). Even a casual friend is better than none.] I hope I did not bore you too much.

[likeboudica]

They look human, but that does not have to mean that they are. [ She would know. ]

Oh, no. You were very kind. I enjoyed our conversations.

[candothat]

If they have control over--curses, did you say?--then they may be anything. Did they create this universe?

[His questions aren't urgent. Honestly, Chekov doesn't look terribly concerned about being stranded in a pocket universe.]

Ah, good! I wish I remembered them, Miss Tessa, but I am sure that I enjoyed them, also.

[likeboudica]

I do not know. Perhaps they did?

[ It is surprising, how well he handles it, but then, in his future these things may well be far more common than in her time and world. ] I hope that you did.

[ A beat. ] I could show you the library again, some time, if you would so wish.

[candothat]

[A lot of crazy things happen in the future, especially when Captain Kirk is in charge.]

There is a library here? A data library, or a library with paper books?

[likeboudica]

There is, it is lovely. [ Smiling again. ] With paper books.

[candothat]

Paper books! Then it is like the rest of this city!

[Of which he has seen a very small amount, but it's so old and exciting!]

This dimension, I think, is behind in time. Do you know the stard--ah, the year?

[likeboudica]

Most people here, and I suspect the technology as well, are from around 2000, in your past. [ A beat. ] 200 years in my future.

[candothat]

[solemnly] You are almost as far from your time as I am. Is it difficult?

[likeboudica]

It is strange, certainly, though most people here have been very kind, truly. That makes it far easier. I am happy here. [ Happier, certainly, than she was in London. ]

[candothat]

Happier than you would be at home?

[This is wholly unfathomable, as Chekov would quite like to be back where he's supposed to be.]

[likeboudica]

[ He knew this. She told him, before. It's strangely upsetting that he doesn't know, now, though a relief that he still cares to ask, even without McCoy to tell him to talk to her. ]

Yes.

[candothat]

May I ask why? [On second thought--] You do not have to answer.

[likeboudica]

It is— [ a sigh ] I told you these things before. I do not mind.

I am [ deep breath. even though she has told him before, it is still difficult to say it out loud, time and time again. ] not human, and in my time, those that know of Downworlders - for that is what I am - look down on them. And [ another pause. ] there is a man who wishes to use me and my abilities and would stop not even at murder to get to me.

[candothat]

[He doesn't apologize for being tiresome, although he considers it. He also keeps most of his questions to himself, assuming he has asked them already.]

You seem very human, Miss Tessa. And this man--he is not in the City, is he?

[likeboudica]

I may look it, but I am not. [ Smiling, a little sadly perhaps. ] He is not, for which I am very glad. Though he may of course arrive here at any time, he so far has not.

[candothat]

How are you not?

[He thinks for a moment.] Did you know Doctor McCoy well, Miss Tessa?

[likeboudica]

I can Change. Become another person.

[ Tessa is torn between sadness that Doctor McCoy is no longer in the City and happiness at the memories. ] We believed, during a curse, that I was his daughter. Even after that, he was like a father to me.

[candothat]

[He doesn't sound surprised. Fascinated, certainly, but not surprised.] You shift shapes?

[McCoy as a father, however, gets a smile. And maybe a stifled giggle.] Was he a good father? Sometimes, I think, he would make a good father, and at other times I think he finds me very irritating. It was different here, maybe?

[likeboudica]

It is more than that. I can truly become another person, know their memories and thoughts. [ She does not sound too happy about this. ]

He was a good father. [ And when she smiles this time, it's happy, almost mischievous. ] He mentioned that he is grumpy without coffee, so I made sure to make him enough of it.

[candothat]

Ah! I have heard of this--empathic shifting? It is not a bad ability. I think you would use it well.

He is grumpy with coffee, as well, but his job is a hard one and he worries too much. Worrying makes him more grumpy than usual. [another quick switch to serious] Do you have other family here?

[likeboudica]

Emphatic shifting? I have not heard it called that. [ A beat. ] Thank you.

He was not so grumpy here. He taught me to make pancakes, and we went horseback riding. [ Looking away. ] There is one person from my world and time here only. I have little family left, even in my world.

[candothat]

[conversationally] I do not know if that is the correct name for it. That is a better ability than some.

Ah. [Chekov can't imagine McCoy making pancakes, but he will keep this to himself.] That is difficult. This person from your world is a friend?