ficlet:: secrets (Star Trek reboot)

[raven]

Prompt requests!

For thoroughly_mad: what a crewmember brought with them on the Enterprise, and something they knew it was time to leave behind.

Ficlet: Secrets
by Raven
G, gen, Star Trek (reboot), 400 words, Scotty and Gaila.

---

It took Scotty three hours, in and around routine maintenance, advising Ensign Gaila on the care and feeding of dilithium crystals, and fending off the usual calls from the bridge, to adjust the internal sensors in the engine room just right. Too much, and the computer would set up an alert. Too little, and, well, a computer alert would be the least of his problems.

But it was done, and the ship's night was closing in, slowly. Another few minutes to clear up, and then the gamma shift would be taken over by crew from nocturnal species. Gaila was yawning behind her hand, unobtrusively. "Come to the mess hall with me, sir," she said. "We can have dinner."

"You go ahead without me, lass," said Scotty, distractedly, but when he looked up a few minutes later she was still there.

"You are waiting for me to leave," she said, sternly. "If you find it sexually exciting to have your encounters in the engine room, you need only say."

"Gaila," he said, and suddenly grinned. "That's not it. But can you keep a secret?"

She nodded. "I'll give you one of mine in trade, that's how we do things in my culture."

"That's okay," he began, but she was shaking her head.

"When I was first at the Academy, I ate the same food for all my meals," she said honestly. "I learned how to make choices later."

"Oh," Scotty said, a little startled. "Oh."

"What is your secret, Lieutenant Commander?"

He grinned at her, walked across to the alcove where he kept his tools and pulled out a small cooling unit, around the size of a loaf of bread. He opened it, let the chilly vapour out, and pulled out a Martini glass filled with ice.

"From Delta Vega?" Gaila asked.

Scotty nodded, grinned again, and with a smooth motion, threw the glass into the air, pulled out his phaser and fired. For a sparkling moment the ice hung as steam, winked into nothing. The glass shattered harmlessly on the floor.

Gaila burst out laughing. "I will tell no one you did this, Mr. Scott."

"There's a good girl." He laughed, and wasn't surprised when she effortlessly adjusted the internal sensors back to normal while he swept up the glass. "Dinner?"

"Gladly," she said, with a smile. "I'll decide what to have when we get there."

He held out his arm; they left together.

Comments

[minttown1.livejournal.com]

This is lovely.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thanks, sweetie.

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Very sweet. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you! You got me into Scotty/Gaila to start with. :)

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

"When I was first at the Academy, I ate the same food for all my meals," she said honestly. "I learned how to make choices later."

This hit me like a fist to the stomach. <3

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

awww! Thank you for reading, honey.

[thoroughly-mad.livejournal.com]

Thank you. This is really great. I like the subtleties in your Scotty- Gaila interactions.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. Thanks for the prompt!

[tau_sigma]

Lovely. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[macadamanaity.livejournal.com]

Like.