Montgomery Scott

Backtagging: By all means, yeeeeeesssssssss. Please don't hesitate to, if you want to.

Threadhopping: Go for it! Unless it's a locked thread, in which case probably not the best idea. Common sense!

Bending, breaking, or otherwise shattering the fourth wall: Yes, but again, common sense. Smallish things need no permission, but I'd rather not break his brain too soon into the game. Ask if you're uncertain.

Hugging/Kissing/Otherwise being touchy-feely: Yes, yes, and yes, but if you don't have his permission prepare for him to react accordingly.

Fighting/Injuring/Killing: By all means, fight! If you're going to injure, I'm probably okay with it as long as there's time to get him to medbay afterward. Nothing fatal, please.

Other: Use common sense. If it's godmodding, please don't do it. If you think you need to ask first, just ask. I'm pretty flexible.

PLAYER INFORMATION
Your Name: Scout
OOC Journal: warpdrive
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: I am well over 18 :|b
Email IM: EMAIL: amplestnacelles[at]gmail[dot]com AIM: ltcmmdrscott
Characters Played at Ataraxion: n/a

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Montgomery Scott
Canon: Star Trek XI
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: Post-canon
Number: 070

Setting: Memory Alpha's page about the film
History:
Montgomery Scott (but please, call him Scotty, everyone does) was born in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland on March 3rd 2222. Or 2222.062, if you prefer the stardate. There's not a whole lot of canon backstory for Scotty, but between Simon Pegg's headcanon and what TOS canon backstory there is, it's easy to assume that Scotty had a pretty normal childhood and that there's not really a whole lot there to talk about anyway.

He started uni at Glasgow at 16, and studied there for two years before transferring to Starfleet Academy at 18. After graduation, he began his Starfleet career in earnest, working on various ships from freighters to ships more like the Enterprise. Once again, not a lot to really talk about.

At some point before the events of STXI, he returned to the Academy to work as an assistant professor in the physics department, during which time he had opportunity to really start working on his theory of transwarp beaming, which of course resulted in the "little debate" about beaming in relation to subspace travel, and further resulted in the regrettable and entirely avoidable loss of Admiral Archer's prized beagle. This, or so Scotty assumes, is the reason for his transfer to the Delta Vega outpost.

After six months on Delta Vega, out of the blue Kirk and Spock Prime show up, no one tells Scotty what's going on apart from the fact that Spock is from the future, and Spock gives Scotty the equation for transwarp beaming, possibly breaking about a dozen time directives in the process. Well done, Spock. Kirk and Scotty are transported by Spock to the Enterprise, and Spock apparently is slipping a bit in his old age, as Scotty arrives in the water supply system. Luckily, Kirk manages to extract him by means of dumping him through the release valve, which is a far sight better than getting sliced to ribbons in the turbine.

The pair of them attempt to leave Engineering and are promptly apprehended by Security, who for some inexplicable reason take them to the bridge rather than a holding cell to be dealt with later. Scotty, who still has no idea what is going on, attempts to defuse the situation with a bit of joking, all of which goes unappreciated.

At some point off-screen, he's given a proper uniform (and a towel, much to his relief), and as the Enterprise previously lost her Chief Engineer due to his utter incompetence at pulling his 'chute, and as Scotty conveniently has the right rank and background, he steps into the role to assist the rest of the crew in figuring out how to deal with the Romulan situation. And for some reason, rather than have Chekov (who totally saved Kirk and Sulu from going splat earlier and is obviously badass at that sort of thing) beam Kirk and Spock over to the Romulan ship, Scotty gets to do it. Because apparently Kirk missed the part where Scotty turned an admiral's dog into a billion atoms scattered all over the galaxy.

So Scotty beams Kirk and Spock over to the Romulan ship, but there's apparently not any sense to the enemy ship's design, because they end up not in the cargo bay without a soul in sight, but in the open and surrounded by Romulans. Well done, Scotty. He does however manage to pull of beaming three people from two locations onto one target after Kirk and Spock take care of business on the Romulan ship, so maybe there's some hope yet.

In a crowning moment of physics-don't-work-like-that, Scotty saves the day when, after the Romulans get pulled into a black hole and the Enterprise gets stuck in the gravity well, he jettisons the warp core and detonates it. The blast pushes the Enterprise well away from the black hole, rather than simply getting completely sucked in and spaghettified on the event horizon, thus proving that Scotty can in fact change the laws o' physics, cap'n.

Somehow the Enterprise and her crew make it back to Earth in spite of having no warp core, Kirk is officially promoted to captain, and the Enterprise is presumably repaired because the crew then continue to adventure through space and boldly go where no man has gone before.

Personality:
Given Scotty's lack of much in the way of screentime in STXI, I hope it's alright if I cite TOS for some bits of this, given that the two Scotties are essentially the same person - though there are a few differences.

For the most part, Scotty is what you get when you give a puppy a thorough understanding of physics and mechanics and a disinclination to widdle on the carpet. He's easily exciteable, passionate about what he does, and rather a bit more energetic than his TOS counterpart - though that could be attributed to the age difference, with XI Scotty being a mere 36 and TOS Scotty being 40-44 throughout the series. Light-hearted, quick with a joke, Scotty is ever the optimist, though a bit uncomfortable with situations involving personal arguments between others. Hence the tension-diffusing jokes. And for all that he makes light of some situations, he is certainly more than capable of putting his game face on and being serious when he needs to. Off-duty, he's more than willing to relax and joke around, but he knows there's a time and place for it. On-duty, or in the middle of a crisis, he's capable, confident, and utterly at ease with both giving and following orders (though more than willing to argue orders he disagrees with, as evidenced in TOS).

In the engine room, he's his most confident; he knows engines and engineering inside and out, and while he's certain that captaincy wouldn't suit him, being Chief Engineer does. Looking at his service record in comparison to some of the younger crew, without context, one might think he must not be as good as all that, but the Romulan incident and the crisis that followed required a great deal of people to be promoted quickly in order to replace those lost; Scotty rose up through the ranks in a more traditional fashion, and his service record should not be viewed in any way as a slight on his abilities. When it comes to working with engines, he's intuitive, adept at problem-solving, extremely capable of thinking on his feet and coming up with solutions on the fly - for example, ejecting and detonating the warp core to save the Enterprise from getting pulled into a black hole. He does, however, have a tendency to get a bit shouty in that sort of intense situation, though to be fair there aren't many people who wouldn't. In the vast majority of high-tension situations on-duty, he handles himself beautifully - TOS Scotty, certainly, tends toward being the very picture of a model officer in the moments when it really matters.

That's not to say that Scotty can't have his moments, however. Though more than capable of being utterly serious when the need arises, Scotty's default is joking, arguing, and being a stubborn bastard - especially when not in the middle of a do-or-die crisis and/or tense moments in the course of a mission. He's more or less the perfect litmus test for how dire a situation is, to be quite honest. If he's ordered to do something with the engine that's going to test the limits of the mechanics, he'll either argue loudly and at length why he can't do it, why he hasn't got enough time to do it, that he can't break the laws of physics, etc - if he has the time and luxury to do so. (And he always, always overestimates the amount of time it'll take him to get something done. Not only does it give him enough time to get it done, it also looks good when he finishes in a fourth of the time he says it'll take.) And given TOS Scotty's penchant for arguing with Kirk and Spock, it's hardly surprising that XI Scotty got into an argument that resulted in atomizing an admiral's dog. When he's right, he's right, and he's stubborn enough to refuse to back down until the choice is back down or get in trouble - and sometimes even then he refuses to back down. It's that same stubbornness that makes him such a good officer, though - once he starts a task, he won't willingly stop until it's done.

One thing not well-demonstrated in XI but prevalent throughout TOS is Scotty's unshakeable loyalty to captain, crew, and ship. This has to do, in part, with Kirk's outstanding captaincy; though they aren't strictly canon depending on who you ask, there's a novel about TOS Enterprise's first mission with Kirk as captain, which has a bit about Scotty being displeased about the arrival of this young upstart captain - which has become a bit of personal headcanon for XI Scotty. After all, his first real introduction to Kirk was the showdown on the bridge, which was certainly a bit eyebrow-raising. And Scotty seems to be absent from the ceremony to relieve Pike and officially promote Kirk - though it's possible he was busy overseeing repairs to the warp core while all of that was going on. It's sometimes joked that Scotty is more loyal to the Enterprise than to Kirk himself, which is probably not entirely untrue - at least at first, though as TOS demonstrates, any misgivings about so young a captain are put to rest and replaced by a great deal of respect and admiration for Kirk, and as the crew continues to work together in STI-VI, it's clear that Scotty would willingly do anything Kirk asked of him. Scotty as I'm apping him has presumably had some time to get to know Kirk, might still be a bit uncertain of him, but is certainly loyal to him and the rest of the crew. But in TOS he does after all refrain from throwing any punches at Klingons throwing insults, stolidly ignoring comments about the Federation and Kirk... until the Klingons insult the Enterprise. And the look on Kirk's face when he finds out is priceless. But I digress.

Regarding the Enterprise, once again not demonstrated in XI due to a distressing lack of Scotty being in the engine room for any amount of time, one of the most important things about Scotty's character is his love of the ship. Privately he considers her his ship. Though he's served on a number of ships, none of them match the Enterprise, which is his pride and joy, and which he loves completely and unconditionally - though he's not above shouting at her when she starts giving him trouble. While XI Scotty might not be at quite the same level of understanding her as TOS Scotty just yet, it's only because he's not had the time yet to really get to know her; TOS Scotty is able to tell when something's not quite right with the engine, even when diagnostics readouts show nothing amiss. (And it's worth noting that even Spock hesitates to dismiss Scotty's gut feeling about something being wrong.) It's entirely possible that Scotty will come to like the Tranquility, especially if her engine is suitably impressive, and likewise possible that given the opportunity to work in the engine room, might develop that same sort of intuition for her engine. He certainly won't quickly or easily get over being away from the Enterprise, but the nature of service in Starfleet is such that he could conceivably be transferred at any time. Of course, when one has as amazing a crew as the Enterprise crew, one doesn't break them up, unless one happens to be a ship called Tranquility. Though apparently even she realizes how important it is that the main seven be together, considering 5 of the 7 are there already.

As for Scotty's personality off-duty and outside the engine room, as Simon Pegg puts it, "He's a drinker and a fighter. Basically everything you'd expect a Scot to be." He certainly does love his drink, and might even have a not-entirely-regulation still hidden somewhere in the engine room. (Expect one on the Tranquility.) And he is very much a Scotsman to the core, to the point of being perhaps the only True Scotsman in the known multiverse. And he is damn proud of it. Insulting his heritage might not get quite the same reaction as insulting the Enterprise, but it'd be close. Considering the fact that TOS Scotty wears a kilt as part of his dress uniform, plays the bagpipes (wtf when do you have time to practice sir) and has a kilt and bagpipes decorating the walls of his quarters, it's probably unfortunately rather true of XI Scotty as well. Though he promises to not play the pipes anywhere anyone might hear, because oh god bagpipes in an enclosed space can you even imagine how horrible that would be. Expect comments about haggis, bagpipes, pubcrawling, how much better scotch whisky (no "e", no sir, that's what those Irish folk drink) is than any other drink, etc and so on because good god man you are a walking Scottish stereotype.

Unfortunately for Scotty, he suffers from an affliction known as "being too brilliant to function properly in society", though his case is not as severe as some. It's sadly something that affects all too many truly brilliant people, though in Scotty it manifests not in a tendency to leave his trousers in the refrigerator, but in a horrifying lack of anything even close to resembling common sense. For example. Using an admiral's prized beagle to demonstrate a transporter theory that might or might even work. See also in TOS: trying to fistfight a GOD to defend a lady's honor. If it's not related to an engine and Scotty thinks it's a good idea? Do the opposite. For real. You'll regret it if you don't.

Oh, and he's pretty much the worst at lying. Really, Scotty, you didn't have to tell Kirk and Spock you didn't know what happened to the dog. Could've lied and said you recovered it and it was living a happy little beagle life in a field full of rainbows and sunshine, you horrible person you. (See also: any time TOS Scotty tries to lie to anyone. It's almost painful to watch.)

TL;DR Scotty is the embodiment of Hufflepuff end of story.

Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:

Abilities
*Can break the laws o' physics, but only once per episode/film and only after protesting loudly and at length that he cannae do it, cap'n
*Can outdrink anyone in the galaxy
*Can totally lay out a Klingon with a single drunken right hook

Alright, on a slightly more serious note - Scotty is an Academy trained officer/engineer with almost 20 years of experience under his belt. His depth of knowledge and real-life experience in regards to physics and mechanics is better than encyclopedic. He can find a solution for damn near any problem related to an engine and/or mechanics, excels at jury-rigging shit and actually making it work. Give him a few minutes with a piece of machinery and he can figure out exactly how it works and what to do it, unless it's important to the plot that he doesn't.

He's also the longest-lived redshirt in the history of redshirts, which is a pretty damn big accomplishment.

Oh, and he's pretty handy with a phaser.

Weaknesses
*Free booze
*A complete and utter lack of anything resembling common sense (an admiral's dog, really?)

Scotty tends to sometimes let himself get stressed about things he shouldn't, has a regrettable lack of common sense, is stubborn and hard-headed sometimes, and on occasion he drinks a wee bit more than he should - and that lack of common sense drops into the negatives when he does. He's also... not the most diplomatic person, sometimes. His tendency to speak his mind gets him in trouble more often than it should.

Power Limitations:
*Is regrettably 100% human

Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot to add here. He's human, and has no special powers or abilities that need limiting. Unless you count the ability to break the laws o' physics. If it's plot-important for him to not be able to, he totally cannae.

Inventory:
1 towel, Starfleet-issue (white)
1 tribble (Hey, You, occasionally Y'Wee Terror and/or What D'You Think You're Doin' Those Are My Protein Nibs)
1 phaser, Starfleet issue (presumably nerfed)
1 stack of tech journals
1 PADD, Starfleet issue (with many more tech journals in digital copy)
1 toolbox (full of tools of course)
1 toolbelt (empty, to be filled with tools from toolbox)
1 Keenser who totally counts as a pet. Totally.

Appearance: Scotty is a tiny wee thing not even six feet tall who would still tower over his barely-five-foot mun, with hair that's dark according to STXI but might be ginger according to photos from the upcoming STXII. Because not only does Scotty defy the laws o' physics, he defies the laws o' genetics as well, or something. As a compromise I tend to go with dark ginger or just not mention it at all. Further defying the laws o' genetics, his eyes are blue, and never mind that his TOS counterpart's eyes were dark and that his birth, having taken place before Nero came along and made the timeline totally fubar, wouldn't have been affected by any alternate universe shenanigans. It's just one of those things.

Being Scottish and working on a starship and rarely getting to see the light of day means he will not ever be anything even close to tanned. He's not exactly lean and fit in STXI, though he appears to have slimmed down a bit in STXII, and as a Chief Engineer would have to be fit enough to work in the engine room, it's not unreasonable to infer that he'd be at least muscular enough to lift heavy bits of equipment, though he's never going to be utterly ripped.

And for some headcanon appearance notes, he's got a bit of scarring here and there from accidents in the engine room over the years, which could have been fixed by Medical if he weren't a stubborn sonuva when he wants to be.

Age: 36

AU Clarification: n/a

SAMPLES
Log Sample:

Scotty wasn't sure, when he woke up, where exactly he was.

This was not, unfortunately, as uncommon as occurrence as perhaps it should have been, although it didn't happen as often these days as it had during his uni years at Glasgow. In his defense, that was twenty years ago, and long nights spent pubcrawling at sixteen tended to result in some interesting hangovers and very little memory of the night before. His tolerance was a great deal higher these days, but he must have managed to get blackout drunk the night before, because never in all his years of having a bit too much had he ever woken to find himself with a breathing tube stuffed down his trachea. Or for that matter being suspended in large quantities of an unknown liquid.

Before the panic had time to properly set in, he found himself more concerned with the fact that the mysterious liquid was beginning to drain rapidly, and the tube beginning to dislodge itself from his throat. That, once his throat was clear, resulted in a litany of curses usually reserved for particularly recalcitrant machinery on days when he'd been on shift for twelve hours and everything seemed to be going wrong all at once. Or rather, it would have, if he hadn't been too busy coughing and trying to keep from getting sick to his stomach from the feeling of the tube sliding along bits of inner anatomy that definitely weren't supposed to have anything but air in them. Eyes watering, he reached out to steady himself, managed to get a proper breath in. Raising a hand to rub at his throat, he winced a bit, trying to take stock of his situation and figure out where he was all in one go. That didn't work so well, so he did a bit of mental backtracking and tried again.

First things first: he was in a medbay. Not the Enterprise's medbay; he unfortunately knew that medbay almost as well as McCoy did, on account of being dragged there against his will each time he got a few scrapes in the engine room. (And never mind that his "scrapes" were the sort that needed medical attention. There was no reason to go rushing off to medical when there was still work to be done.)

Next: he wasn't alone. Slightly damp, in nothing more than his skivvies, he was at least in good company. Several other people, none of whom he recognized, were likewise trying to get over having been intubated, and all of them were as almost-completely-naked as he was. He gave them a worried sort of grin and ventured, "Don't suppose any o' you lot have got a towel?"

There was no towel forthcoming. But if Scotty knew his medbays, there was bound to be a supply closet somewhere, and maybe some clean sheets or some sort of something to cover up for modesty's sake. Nothing wrong with being in such a state of undress in the privacy of one's own quarters (or someone else's quarters, provided that someone else in question was of the same opinion) but out in the open, with a group of strangers...

His quest to find a supply closet was interrupted by a thought nudging at the corners of his mind, and he stopped a moment, frowning slightly. This wasn't a 'fleet ship. He'd missed it at first, being too busy trying to not cough up a lung and then worrying about how undressed he was, but... The details weren't quite right. One medbay tended to look a lot like another, but this one... No. Definitely not 'fleet. And he could feel the ship's engine in the soles of his feet, the distant thrum coming up through the floor, steady and rhythmic and wrong.

Foggy memory of the night before filtered through slowly. Leave. Dry-docking. He hated dry-docking. Hated seeing the Enterprise without her engines running. A ship without an engine running was a cold, dead thing. A massive hunk of lifeless metal, empty and still. The engine wasn't just a ship's heart, it was her soul.

Some people, who had entirely too much logic and not enough romance in their pointy-eared souls, scoffed at the idea of a ship being alive. But you could build two identical ships with two identical engines and in a matter of days they'd have their own individual quirks. Take his ship, for example. She was a fine, beautiful lady and he'd fight anyone who said otherwise, but she had a mind of her own and there were some things she plain just didn't like. And anyone who said otherwise had never spent the better part of a day up to his elbows in wiring and couplings and grease trying to undo the "improvements to the system" implemented by a bunch of puffed-up admirals who spent too much time doing deskwork and not nearly enough remembering what it was like to actually work in space.

Another memory, this one of a slightly inebriated tirade about admirals in general, floated to the surface, followed by yet another memory of a slightly more inebriated tirade about sitting on his arse in a space station while strangers did God only knew what to the engines. The rest of it vanished, and Scotty could only assume that whatever he'd had to drink last night, it must've been damn good.

He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. Maybe he ought to lay off the alcohol for a bit. Until tomorrow, at least. No sense in going overboard with his self-imposed prohibition.

His investigation of the medbay was further forestalled by the discovery of what appeared to be a tattoo on his forearm. It didn't mean much to him, at first, until he took a closer look at the second bit. 070. Only the first zero was right over a scar from an old engineering mishap, which looked rather a bit like a one. And there was another, just after the second zero. 1701. Sort of. He felt a bit ridiculous for it, but it made him feel a tiny bit better for finding a way to make it into the Enterprise's call number. Still, it didn't answer the question of where he was - or why he was there. Or, for that matter, how he'd managed to get there. Or how he'd wound up with a tattoo he definitely didn't remember getting.

Maybe he ought to make that prohibition a couple days.

Standing around in his skivvies wondering about it wasn't going to get anything done, though, so he started his investigation in earnest, and did indeed find a supply closet. And some fresh linens, which would do nicely for covering up until he managed some real clothes. Being covered up didn't last very long, though - he caught sight of a young woman standing off to one side, staring down at the floor, cheeks red, cringing with what he assumed was embarrassment. He could deal with being almost naked, he decided, making his way over to offer her the sheet he'd found. "No' much, but it's better'n nothing, aye?" he asked her as he handed it over, and she gave him a grateful smile as she wrapped it around herself. "Why don't we go see about findin' something t'wear?" he added, because he was beginning to feel rather a bit exposed, as it were. And he could use some clothes. A shower. Something to soothe his stomach.

He found the lockers before too much longer, and was relieved to find a towel and a fresh uniform inside. Not his own uniform, but it was better than nothing. There were a few other things, tools and items from the Enterprise. And... a little ball of cooing fur. "Hey, You," he said softly, giving the tribble a few absent-minded pats as he dug through the rest of the locker's contents. None of what he found did anything to answer his questions - in fact, he only had more. After putting his uniform on - and tucking the tribble into a pocket for safe-keeping - with a growing sense of trepidation he followed the rest of the crowd to the lift...


Comms Sample:

[Have a video feed of a slightly distracted Scotsman surrounded by bits of paper with terribly complex equations scribbled all over.]

Ah, right. Has anyone got blueprints t'the ship? Diagrams o' the engine? I've been doin' a few calculations... The engines ought t'have enough power t'support runnin' a transporter. An' if I can work out transwarp beamin', transdimensional beamin'... Well, it'll be a wee bit tricky, but the theory's sound. Got t'be a way t'do it, if the ship's pullin' people in during a jump, aye? Just a matter o' workin' out how t'make it go the other way, but I'm goin' t'need more data first. Recordings o' what exactly goes on durin' a jump. Ship's energy consumption, whether or no' there's any spikes when she's bringin' people aboard. Whether or no' there's any sort o' transporter signal when she jumps. There's got t'be something, people don't just spontaneously vanish from one dimension an' pop up in another. The hardest part's goin' t'be workin' out coordinates for a landin' target. Anyone got star charts for this galaxy? Know anything about whether or no' it matches up t'the Milky Way at all? If it's similar enough, I can program the computers t'compensate for slight differences in relative positionin' o' the targets in question.

[He pauses a moment, running a finger along the line of his mouth as he remembers that secure communications might not be all that secure.]

This is all purely theoretical, mind. An academic exercise. Something t'pass the time. Wouldn't dream o' actually tryin' it, it'd be too risky without proper tests an' experimentation.

[He's pretty terrible at lying.]

Reeve tells me you're having some trouble getting off-world.

He'd put it off long enough. The longer he waited to go apologize to Jack, the harder it would be, and the less he'd want to go do it. All he could do, really, was bite the bullet, get it over with, and just hope that he hadn't completely bollocksed everything up. He sat for a while, though, in his quarters, his PADD in hand, just staring at the blank screen. He wanted to let Jack know he was planning on stopping by, but....

But nothing. He had to do this. A few minutes of just sitting there, and he typed something up, and sent if off before he had a chance to change his mind.

Hey. I was wondering if maybe you have a few minutes. Wanted to stop by and talk.

[[Following this conversation]]

Two hours wasn't really a very long time to wait, though the paperwork Scotty had to do in the meantime made it feel like much longer. In all honesty he probably could have gotten away with putting it off, but this way at least he knew it would be done. And for once, he didn't try to stay a little late when those two hours were up - he'd been told to keep taking it easy, for one thing, and for another, he had a visit from Jack to look forward to.

The minute those two hours were up, he sent a message to the other man, asking if he was ready to be beamed aboard the Enterprise.

Scotty wasn't exactly sure what had happened. He was still somewhat in a state of shock, and he knew that he should head up to Medical and get his arm taken care of, but first things first - he had to make sure his crew was alright. It probably should have worried him that he couldn't quite feel his arm, but there were more important things to worry about. Roping off the area of the blast, for one, and organizing a clean-up crew. Making sure that no one else was seriously injured. Luckily, it looked like he was the only who'd got hit with any shrapnel; everyone else who'd been standing in range seemed to have suffered only minor abrasions.

A few days into shore leave, and Scotty had been to a sheep-shearing festival on another world, had drunkenly visited Jack in Cardiff, and now... Well, now it was time to visit the planet they'd actually stopped off at. And hell, he thought, why not invite Jack along? So he'd called back to the ship to get them beamed aboard, and had gone back to his quarters with Jack in tow to get a few things together so they could head down to the planet.

There was just one minor problem. Uhura had thoughtfully included a swimsuit in the clothes she'd found for him to wear, and... Okay, so it didn't look bad, but... He stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror for a moment, then sighed and pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, and headed back out into the main part of his quarters to finish packing up. He just hoped Jack didn't notice the rather pinkish tinge on his cheeks.

Aileas was gone when I woke up this morning. We both knew it was going to happen, but I'd hoped to spend a bit more time with her. Still, it's probably for the best. A starship's no place for a daemon.

[There's a lot more he'd like to say here. Things like how even if he can't see Aileas or talk to her it doesn't mean she's not there. Things like how much he misses her, even if she's not really gone. Things like his thoughts on the conversation they had before she disappeared.

He's feeling pretty lonely.]

Just as a head's up, the transporters are capable of transdimensional beaming.

[Have been for a bit, actually. He just sort of forgot to say anything about it.]

Scotty had told Jack he'd be done with the turbine rotor in an hour, and he was running late. Not that there was much he could do about it; he'd rather be a bit late than do a shoddy job and end up with a busted turbine. Even so, he couldn't deny that it was a relief when that final blade was properly locked into place. His legs were beginning to cramp from the way he'd had to fold himself around the rotor to even get at the thing in the first place, but overall the satisfaction of a job well done far outweighed the discomfort. Still, it was a relief to be able to stand upright again, when he climbed out of the containment shaft. He tossed the old blades down onto the floor below before making his way down himself, and once on the floor he paused to shrug out of the top half of his jumpsuit; he had on a black undershirt, but apart from that he'd opted to go without his customary uniform today. No need to go getting a good uniform all covered in grease.

After shouting for someone to come gather up the old blades and get rid of them, he made his way out of engineering, not bothering to stop by his office on the way out. Anything short of an emergency could wait until tomorrow. It wasn't until he'd made it about halfway to his quarters that he realized he'd forgotten to ditch his toolbelt, and even when he did notice, it was in an off-hand sort of way; he had other things on his mind. Things like Jack, for instance, and the fact that he hadn't really spoken to him since the virus. And, if he was going to be completely honest with himself, he was a bit nervous. Still, he wasn't about to back out now. A few more decks up and he was nearly at his quarters; a few corridors over and he was there, and there was Jack, waiting for him.