Scotty was annoyed, mostly, that Mr Spock had ordered him to take time off. Spock had a zonnia pinned within his star fleet badge. It looked good on the Vulcan. That, Scotty, could agree on. He couldn't agree on if the Vulcan was doing well. Scotty went to the bar section of the Enterprise that had a Gangorian tending to it. He was surprised that Spock had not come in here, yet. It seemed as though that Vulcan had been everywhere aboard the ship. Perhaps he did need the time off. He sat down onto the bar stool alongside two young female Deltans in red uniforms consisting of trousers instead of skirts.

"Scotty?" Scotty looked over to see the Bartender, a former barber, smiling back at him.

"Scle'ion!" Scotty said. "Nice tae see ya."

"As to you, old friend," Scle'ion said. "Green alcholo?"

"As usual," Scotty said. The two Deltans beside Scotty were unable to say words as Scle'ion poured a drink for the Scottsman. "How ye been?"

"Mostly fine," Scle'ion said. "I have been . . . majoring. . . in new hair cuts . . . if you like to call them hair cuts," the bartender winced. "butchered hair." He shook his head lowering the cup to the counter. "Deltans are lucky they do not, biologically, grow hair."

"Sir," Ensign Harrik said. "hair is like . . ."

"keeping a part of yourself closed off," Ensign Sark continued, her thin arched eyebrows lowered as she sipped from her glass. "a travesty that the skin cannot be touched."

"Hair is still sansationaizin'," Scotty said. "hair is still sexual in our culture."

"Interesting," Sark said.

"Sir," Harrik said. "have you ever been given a . . Deltan. . . gift?"

Sark loooked over toward the chief engineer.

"Nae," Scotty said. "I am nae always attracted tae women."

"Women don't always give the gifts, Mr Scott," Sark said. "men do it too."

Scotty's face turned a shade of pink. ". .. maybe. . . the one with the pretty leaves," Scotty said. "but I declined it."

The two deltan's were baffled.

"Why?" Sark asked.

"Because I am already in love with a lady," Scotty said.

Scle'ion rolled an eye. "You do know she can't get married," Scle'ion said."it is illegal to adopt her."

"A man can dream!" Scotty said.

"But you just said you don't like women," Harrik said.

"You did," Sark agreed.

"The Enterprise dae nae have tae be a woman if she were human," Scotty said. "I love her through and through. She is my baby. I can't leave her unattended."

"Oooh. . . so. . . you feel like a parent," Harrik said.

Scotty nodded.

"Been rebuildin' her from the ground up into this beauty," Scotty said. "internally . .. " Scotty couldn't finish it as he was about to choke on his emotions. "externally, she is a magnificent silver lady."

"He is always like that," Scle'ion said, as Scotty took a sip from his drink. "don't underestimate him."

"Humans," Sark and Harrik said.

Harrik sighed.

"You know, I have not seen the captain down in the security room to meet his security team," Harrik said.

"Decker?" Sark asked.

"No, Mr Spock," Harrik said. "much as I like to meet him. . ."

"But I thought--" Sark was cut off.

"He is taking command of the ship," Harrik said. "Don't know who promoted him when he should still be a commander after he left Star Fleet."

"He needed a break," Scotty said. "after that loss. I can nae blame him."

"Nor would have I," Scle'ion said. "excuse me, y'all. I have another customer to attend to."

"Lung iil zur utt gare uun huup?" Sark asked. The language, it sounded familiar. Scotty heard it from somewhere--an Andorian officer speaking with another Andorian officer over a game of chess. A few years ago. It was quite different from Vulcan, that Scotty knew, because Vulcan was quite a complex, formal language that sounded beautiful to his ears. Andorian just sounded like gibberish but very sophisticated with words that got the meaning across.

"Baan," Harrik said, slightly waving her hand. "uut zeekh."

Scotty took another sip of his drink.

"kunoon zhiih aph?" Sark asked.

"Ba koph prep," Harrik said.

"Noon tiph," Sark said, then she took a sip of her glass.

Scotty took another sip then swallowed the bit.

"Funny how life is," Harrik said, returning to federation standard. "we find ourselves in surprising places."

"Wherever there is a bar, there is going to be me," Sark said. "not at all surprising, my friend."

"But being under Mr Spock's command," Harrik said. "that is surprising."

"Best officer in the fleet," Scotty spoke up. "he deserves it."

"You are not even surprised?" Harrik asked.

"Nae the slightest," Scotty said. "how about ye, lassies?"

"I thought I would be under the command of a human male as seventy-three percent of the federation starships are commanded by men," Harrik was jabbed in the shoulder by Sark. "Sixty-three percent."

The years bound by spacedock had aged him by ten years. Being in unknown space was like floating in the void where age did not matter. It was irrelevant. It was a mute discussion regarding physically aging. Scotty had grown a gray mustache and his figure had grown rounded being bound to the ground. Scotty almost did not recognize himself at first when he noticed his once slim figure was gone. No longer was that young man who tricked the Kobyashi Maru to firing torpedoes at once. No longer was the well, attractive man who could get surrounded by women. But did it matter at his occupation? No, not really. He could still move on to the parts in engineering that most people could not navigate but he could.

He knew engineering by heart. The kids here were adapting to it and getting adjusted to it. Perhaps he was kicked out of engineering because of a little dilithium problem while convinced someone stole it. Because they could not have easily just lost a spare dilithium. He knew where they were kept and so did the ensigns. And Scotty was, in all retrospects, just casually asking. Not like he was grilling them. What did Spock see in the situation that resulted in having time off? There had to be certain logic in that for the Vulcan to advise him taking time off. Scotty would never know.

"And the rest of the percentage are by high esteemed, intelligent women," Scotty said. "you meet the captain of the USS Hood?" Sark and Harrik shook their heads.

"No, Mr Scott," Sark said. "Call me Scotty, please," Scotty said. "and she is very butch. Very butch. I can nae stress on how butch she is because of how great she is," he had a fond smile recalling the woman. "She used tae be an engineer in the fleet, ye know."

"Mrs Wright?" Sark asked, surprised. "A engineer? I heard she used to be a security officer."

"Dae nae believe everythin' ye hear, lassies," Scotty said. "She once was assigned tae the Enterprise as a lieutenant commander under my win'," he took a sip of his drink. "took nae time at all tae become commander and get transferred tae the USS Hood."

"Sounds like a impressive track sheet," Sark said.

"She is just good at her field," Scotty said. "I like that about her.. I like that about those I get to know first hand."

"Have you ever met Captain Rainsford?" Harrik asked.

"Aye," Scotty said. "bright youn' woman. Wise beyond her years. Met her last year at Starbase 1."

"Wait, she was actually there?" Harrik asked, alarmed.

"In the flesh," Scotty said, with a nod.

"Daaamn," Harrik said. "you meet every historical person of this era."

"Not everyone," Scotty said. "nae Garth of Izar. . . Wish I met him."

"I heard they got rid of what drove him insane," Harrik said. "he is somewhere in the galaxy chilling out."

"Fortunetly, no one knows where," Sark said, as we see men with black pupils surrounding the once captain enjoying a type of alcohol. "It is probably for the best," They were in white, bright attire and appeared to be pampering him with everything he wanted. They hard dark curly hair with different shades of black skin. Garth appeared to be enjoying himself. Our scene panned back to the bar. "with all things considered."

"His reputation in star fleet would have left time taking years to regain that trust," Harrik said. "let alone commanding a starship.

"Hope that never has tae come down tae me," Scotty said.

"You?" Harrik said. "Becoming criminally insane and losing your reputation?"

"It can happen," Scotty said, taking a sip from his cup.

"Please, can that not?" Sark asked.

"Can nae deny the possibility," Scotty said. "anythin' can happen in space."

"That is true," Harrik said.

"Like bein' turned in tae a breedin' machine or a parasite impregnettin' ye," Scotty said.

"Just what kind of missions did you go on, Scotty?" Harrik asked.

Scotty grinned.

"Have ye ever heard of Macgyver?" Scotty asked.

"No, what is it?" Harrik said, confused as Sark sat there in spilling horror from her face.

"And Doc Brown?" Scotty asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Which Doctor Brown?" Harrik said, confused, as Sark tapped on the butch woman's shoulders. "The one from the USS Hope? Or . . ."

"He is talking about the time traveler," Sark said. "but he is fictional."

"Are nae we all?" Scotty said. "Just stories on a piece of paper?"

"Theoretically," Harrik said, with a shrug.

"How did you meet them?" Sark asked.

"Funny story," Scotty said, then he took another sip from his drink.

"Tell us," Sark said.

"Well. . . I was under Captain Sulu's command back then. . ." Scotty started.