Turtles: the final frontier

[starcharter]

Characters: Chekov and YOU
Date: Today-ish
Location: Absolutely everywhere
Situation: Chekov has been snatched from the Enterprise and dropped shoeless and confused into a city on the back of a turtle. Clearly the solution is to look around and go shopping.
Warnings/Rating: None


At first, he'd thought it was a very, very strange dream. Of course, that theory was debunked about two minutes in when he pinched himself. Then he was carted from a grand palace to a reasonably large city. He couldn't identify this particular race of aliens, but it's clear that their technology lags far behind the Federation's. So he stays quiet. So do they, actually. The few questions he asked-- generic questions-- he'd gotten little scraps of information and a lot of 'that's the Emperor's business.' A monarchy. That explains the palace, he supposes.

Once they show him his suite (it was pretty nice) and dropped some money into his hands (money? How outdated), Chekov decides to set off. He needs to change out of his uniform, just to be safe. The Prime Directive is that one rule you don't want to break in Starfleet. Even hinting at the fact that he was from a world more advanced than this one is a bad idea. He needs to blend in as much as he can.

A little hard to do when you're standing shoeless in the middle of Metal Sector.

Alright. He focuses: clothes, food, crew, answers. Without any kind of Starfleet communication device, he's going to have to hoof it around the city. Just as well: not having a mental map of this place bothers him; he might as well start making one now.

Comments

[starcharter]

"Your ship must be quite small for your captain to fill so many roles."

Though that's not an insult. Chekov's pretty impressed that her captain can do so much at once. Not that roles were always 100% completely defined on the Enterprise.

[parallels]

"Only on the outside. Inside is enormous. Maybe even infinite. It's a bit different from the Enterprise. Alien technology and all that."

[starcharter]

Chekov stares at her disbelievingly.

"That is... quite some technology."

[parallels]

"Alien, like I said."

But she's grinning because she gets it.

[starcharter]

"What race of aliens, if I may ask?"

He's never heard of this before, not from any known species. Nero's time travel was an anomaly, a fluke.

[parallels]

"They're called Time Lords. But, you've probably never ran into one. He's the only one left. Long story."

And not hers to tell.

[starcharter]

Chekov looks solemn. Losing almost an entire race of people... it was awful. He couldn't even begin to imagine what the survivors felt.

"I'm sorry to have brought up something so sad."

[parallels]

"You didn't know. Don't worry about it."

Affectionate arm pat.

[starcharter]

He smiles-- he can see why she and the Captain would get along so well. Part of Chekov wants to ask what it's like to be grounded; most of him hasn't quite grasped it yet. It still felt temporary, despite evidence to the contrary. But that's a little too personal for someone he just met, so he sticks with something more generic.

"How long have you served on the TARDIS?"

[parallels]

"Not long. Only a few months, I mean technically. With time travel things get a bit, you know."

She waves her hand to indicate how messy things are when it comes her life now. Really messy. Time travel, the Doctor, really just a mess.

"And you on the Enterprise?"

[starcharter]

He nods, understanding.

"Our missions have been short until recently, so I have not been in space continuously. But I have been assigned to the Enterprise for two years."

[parallels]

She scrunches up her nose a bit at that.

"Longer than Jim has. Think you might be a bit ahead of him. It happens here, timelines are a mess and you're not always from the same time as your friends."

[starcharter]

He runs a hand through his hair.

"Ay, sorting this out is going to be much more complicated than I thought."

Because, of course, he was going to try to figure out how they got here, at least.