Chapter Nine

                It’d been a week since I had randomly developed telepathic powers. I was very grateful for Spock. He had been right the first night, however, our telepathic powers were very different. The first difference and major one was that he had to touch someone, well supposedly someone he wasn’t ‘bonded’ with that is, to telepathically communicate. The other major difference was that he was able to see memories as well as current thoughts and emotions during the mind meld, whereas I could only ‘hear’ someone’s current thoughts and feel their intentions so to say.

                We figured out that my range was increasing over that week as well. I had established an effective ‘control’ that first night, which he was impressed by, and Spock wasn’t easily impressed by anything, I’d ‘read his mind’ to know he was impressed by my quick learning. That week was spent honing my skill and developing a super control. I learned how to ‘filter out’ voices I didn’t want to hear, to the point where they were just ‘background noise’ as if they would have been background noise had they been truly speaking aloud. I also learned that my range, if focused on a single individual, was exceptional.

I went out with Tasha, Leo, Kirk, and Uhura over the weekend, although begrudgingly at first, and at one point I had accidentally thought about Spock. I ended up embarrassing myself quite badly that night, having told him unintentionally that Kirk was being his typical male self, trying to take me home, and that I’d wished Spock was there to make him stop. Kirk, to be fair, always hit on women, but he honestly never took anyone home, I was beginning to understand that he acted the way he did just because everyone else expected him to. Spock told me as much when he communicated back to me, also scolding me for my control slipping. Apparently, as long as I established the link of communication, the other person could communicate back with me, telepathic or not, regardless of the range. That was a good thing, and Spock agreed it might be a useful skill.

                Yeah, alcohol was something I shouldn’t be drinking much of, unless I wanted to start involuntarily communicating with someone I was thinking about, or if I drank too much, start hearing everyone else’s thoughts. When I realized I had started to hear other people’s thoughts that night without trying to, I had quickly stopped drinking and told Tasha and Leo I needed to leave because of it.

They walked me home, not wanting me to go home alone again, although Kirk and Uhura were somewhat confused as to why we were leaving so suddenly, they quickly got over it, apparently making plans to go home as well. Yeah, that was something I learned as well. Kirk and Uhura had started dating. That was weird, because half of the time Uhura was comparing Kirk to Spock. She was still somewhat hung up over Spock, but also knew they weren’t really a good match, and to be fair, she really did like Kirk after all.

                The night I had gone to Spock’s had also been quite informative. When I had established my control, we talked more about the prophecy. It was a frightening and somewhat exciting idea. Spock now believed, that although a prophecy was hardly something to put stock in, perhaps it was correct information. If I didn’t believe in prophecy, well, it definitely explained what was happening to me.

Basically it says that the last princess of the Royal House of the Sealtag would develop multiple gifts, her power would be unmatched to any previous member of the royal house, and she would be born into a time when she was needed most. The only thing that scared the hell out of me was the last part of this so called prophecy: that this princess, who I knew was me now, would either be a force for great good, or great evil. Spock told me it was illogical to put stock in such a religiously shrouded statement, that perhaps this prophecy was only regarded as such, because it was a piece of information that had been passed down through many generations. That the only reason it would possibly mention being evil would be to warn those with great power they had the capability to destroy as well, because, well, humanity. Alright, he said it more eloquently and with much speculation, but that was the jist of it.

I held back my retort saying that no matter what he deemed illogical to believe in or not, the prophecy scared the hell out of me. Could I live up to that, and stay ‘good’?

                Thinking about this past week, so wrapped in my own thoughts, I didn’t even notice the bell ring for the end of my Advanced Warp Theory class.

                “Ms. Mor, class has ended lass.” I heard Lt. Commander Scotty announce to me, pulling me out of my own head. I looked around and realized that everyone else was gone. I was the only cadet still sitting at my desk.

                “Sorry, Commander Scott.” I replied half-heartedly. He was good friends with Leo and Kirk and the rest of the crew, but he also didn’t really ‘hang out’ with them much, having more work than the rest of them minus Spock. But, I guessed, that he had been informed to some extent of what was going on with me, after all, he was one of many of my professors that said I would make a fine addition to the Enterprise crew.

                “Are you doing alright, lassie? You seem to be distracted lately, and I wouldn’t say anything, except that you’re my best student, I don’t want yer grades slipping during yer last semester.”

                “I know, I’m sorry, I just have a lot on my plate lately. Personally and professionally. I’m worried in both senses.” I admitted as he walked up to sit in the desk next to me.

                “Lass, yer gonna fine. You’ll be assigned to the Enterprise, no question. And I’d be happy to appoint ye as my second, there’s no one I’d rather have helping me out in engineering once the Enterprise is finished with her repairs.” I had known for a while that Lt. Commander Scott, or Scotty as he liked to be called outside of class, wanted me to join his team once I graduated. I’d been impressing him since my very first class with him, one year ago. He had started teaching at the academy when the Enterprise had been docked for repairs after what we called the Khan incident.

                “I know, Scotty, but I’m worried that they won’t want me because of what’s going on now. I’d tell you more, but honestly, I think even you’d be scared if I did.” I looked at him and realized I probably just offended him. He was truly a good man, his first and only love that of the Enterprise.

                “Ach lass, I know a wee bit aboot what’s going on with ye. And I’m sorry, but from where I sit, you’d only be an asset to the crew. Yer also one of the finest engineers I’ve known, and I don’t make that statement lightly, you should know that.” He put his hand on mine to comfort me, almost like a father would to comfort his daughter. At that moment, I realized I could probably have confided in him much earlier about everything, and felt badly that I hadn’t.

                “Thanks, Scotty, that means a lot. I really want to be assigned to the Enterprise when I graduate. I’m sorry to say, I really hope it’s still here when I graduate. I know she’s almost finished with repairs, heck, I’ve been helping out with them too.” And I had, about once every week for the past year I’d made it a personal mission of mine to go with Scotty and help with repairs to the ship, it was part of the reason he so badly wanted me with him when she was finished being repaired. He felt that someone with that much dedication to repairing a pretty much broken down ship, because of the damage the vengeance had caused.

                “Well, someone so willing to work with me, and someone with your skills, they shouldn’t be assigned anywhere else. You’d probably make chief pretty soon on any other ship, but you’d learn more and get more experience on the Enterprise. I’d be happy ta have ye as my second.” He gave me a big smile and I stood up to hug him. If anyone had become a father figure to me at the academy, it was Scotty.

 “I can’t in good conscious let potential like yer’s go to waste. And I might be tootin my own horn, but I don’t think any other chief engineer is gonna be able to keep teachin’ ye for too long. You’d be best suited on my team lass, and ye know that.” He hugged me back tightly.

“Now get yer arse out of my classroom and get to studying. I did just give yer class a major project to start on. Ye better have it done before finals, and you, lassie, you better have the best damn project in the class, or I might just have to rethink recommending you for the crew.” He winked at me, knowing full well he didn’t mean rescinding his recommendation, but letting me know he still expected me to be the best, and wouldn’t expect any less from me.

                “I’m scared, though, Scotty, I know you believe in me, but what if I mess this up? What if I’m not good enough?” I confided my fear finally, realizing I meant it both about being his second in command of engineering, and about the mysterious prophecy of the Sealtag.

                “Lass, have faith in yourself, the rest of us do. In the words of Nikos Kazantzakis, ‘In order to succeed we must first believe we can’ and I think ye ken ye can lass, don’t be selling yerself short now.” He paused, giving me a moment to reflect on his uncharacteristically serious words. “But ye should get going lass, I need to get back up to the ship soon, don’t trust anyone else to watch over her for too long now.” He gave me a sincere smile and chuckled softly to lighten the mood.

                “Alright, alright. I’m going. Try not to fall asleep in the warp engine tonight, Scotty!” I laughed, knowing he was headed to his favorite place after he was finished grading our classes essays we turned in two days ago. I walked out of the class feeling much better.