Title: The Portal Series (in 3 parts) 2/3
Author: Sweetdoggie (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: R
Summary: Buffy and Giles take an unexpected trip
Spoilers: Up to mid-season 7
Disclaimer: No permission has been granted to use the characters. They are owned by their creator, Joss Whedon, Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, WB, and Mutant Enemy. This story is non-profit and is intended solely as entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: Gilligan’s Island, Star Trek and Gunsmoke are also owned by a multitude of other people and corporations. None of the characters belong to me. This story is non-profit and is intended solely as entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.
The portal had opened soundlessly less than three feet from it’s original position. Buffy and Giles stepped forward and, hand in hand, plunged into its glowing maw. They tumbled out of the jungle onto a metal platform. Buffy looked around. This wasn’t home!
Giles followed her gaze. Wherever they were, it wasn’t Sunnydale. They seemed to be in a room that was mainly metal. The doorways looked odd. He speculated that the doors slid on some sort of track rather than opening on a hinge. Buffy was looking around and seemed very unhappy.
“Shit.” He heard her mutter. “Shit, shit, shit!” She looked at him. “I think I know where we are and it’s not good.”
He looked glum. “Another TV universe?”
She nodded. “Star Trek, I think. The original series. Oh man, you think the Skipper was a letch, wait till you see Kirk.” She had a sudden thought. “Let’s hope we are on the Enterprise and not one of the other ships. They had the longevity of a fruit fly.”
Suddenly, alarms went off and lights began flashing. Buffy moved closer to Giles and he put his arms around her. That’s how they were found seconds later by men dressed in red uniforms and armed with some sort of strange looking weapons. They held Buffy and Giles at gun (or whatever) point till a man in a gold uniform strode into room accompanied by two other men dressed in blue. Buffy noticed with some relief that one of the men was obviously a Vulcan. He had pointed ears and funky eyebrows. She whispered to Giles that she thought they would be all right if everybody kept calm.
The man in gold, obviously in charge, walked up to them. “I’m Captain James T. Kirk. Who are you and what are you doing on my ship?”
Buffy prodded Giles to speak. “Um, I’m Rupert Giles and this is my wife, Buffy. Where are we?”
“You are on the Starship Enterprise. I want to know how and why you have appeared on my ship.” Kirk looked stern.
Giles looked at Buffy in confusion. “Is this something you know about, love?”
She shrugged. “I can give it a shot.” She turned to the Captain. “I think we fell through some sort of portal. We just want to get back home. There was this big glowy doorway and we thought it was going to take us back home, but we ended up here.” She blinked and tried very hard to look dumb. She looked at the Vulcan. “He’s not human.”
The Vulcan first officer stepped forward. “I am a Vulcan, Mrs. Giles. My name is Spock. I belong to a race allied to Earth humans.”
Buffy nodded. “Cool.”
Spock looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “The ambient temperature should be a comfortable human norm of approximately 24.444 degrees.”
Buffy looked at Giles for a translation. “About 76 degrees Fahrenheit,” the former librarian supplied.
“I didn’t mean cool like in a temperature. I meant cool as in, uh, neat.” She explained.
The eyebrow climbed higher. “The ship is tidy.”
Buffy rested her forehead against Giles in an “I give up” sort of gesture. “Er, I believe my wife means, um, interesting.” Giles explained.
This time both eyebrows rose. “Interesting. Yes. I believe that is correct.”
Both men ignored Buffy’s muffled groan. Giles held out his hand. “Rupert Giles.”
The Vulcan looked at the outstretched human hand in front of him with curiosity. Finally, he put out his own palm and briefly touched it to Giles’. “I am Spock.”
The other man dressed in blue edged forward. “I’m Dr. McCoy. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Giles, and um, Buffy?” He said.
Buffy looked up. “Yeah, I’m Buffy.” She shook the Doctor’s hand.
“So, tell me how you came to be on our ship, Buffy.” The Doctor smiled comfortingly at her.
“Well, first we were at home, walking along on patrol and then there was this portal thing. We were attacked before we could explore it properly and Giles pushed us through it to save us. We ended up on an island in what we figure was another dimension. We thought we would get home when the portal reopened on the proper night, but instead it dumped us here.” She looked around. “I think this is a different dimension from either of the first two.” She frowned. “And the time thing is off again.”
When the others looked at her questioningly, Giles stepped in with an explanation. “The first dimension we traveled to appeared to be about forty years behind our own 21st century. This appears to be somewhat ahead of that. A friend we made there called it a trans-dimensional space-time something or other.” Giles said with a small flutter. He hated hard science. It was boring.
Kirk looked at them both questioningly. He wasn’t sure he believed such a glib explanation for their sudden appearance, but stranger things had happened. He needed some hard facts. He had an idea. “While we are getting some quarters set up for you, would you let the Doctor here examine you? You might need to be inoculated against some modern diseases.”
Buffy looked at her husband and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”
Rupert agreed with a nod.
Kirk relaxed slightly. Maybe the Doctor could come up with some explanations for this odd couple. “If you would accompany Doctor McCoy to sickbay?”
They followed the Doctor from the room. Buffy’s slayer hearing was good enough that she could hear Kirk asking the Vulcan what he thought. They were out of range by the time he formulated his answer.
The ship was interesting. It was bigger than the TV version for one thing, though the doors did make an interesting whooshing sound when they opened. Buffy made a note to play with them when the opportunity afforded itself. They got on an elevator that went sideways. She heard Giles give a little ‘eep!’ of surprise. The Doctor immediately apologized. “I’ve been on this bucket of bolts so long, I’ve forgotten that normal elevators don’t go sideways as a rule.” He huffed.
Giles, his dignity somewhat compromised, simply straightened his coat and said, “Quite.”
They arrived in sickbay and the Doctor had each of them stand in front of some sort of screen for a moment. “Empty your pockets into this bin.” He gave them a plastic basket. “Don’t forget to remove any jewelry, rings, that sort of thing.” He pushed a button and spoke into an intercom. “Nurse Chapel, could you come here a moment?” A door in the back of the room opened and a statuesque blonde came out. She looked them over in a friendly fashion while the Doctor performed the requisite introductions.
“If you two wouldn’t mind, could you put on these gowns for your examinations?” The Doctor smiled soothingly.
Buffy shrugged and looked at her husband. He nodded. “Buffy, if you would go with Nurse Chapel, she will help you get ready.” The Doctor nodded his head at the blonde nurse.
“Mr. Giles?” McCoy called the Englishman’s attention back to the matter at hand. “Could you put this on?” He was handed a gown.
Giles sighed and began to strip. The Doctor fiddled with some machinery for a few minutes while he waited. “So, you’re from an alternate dimension?” McCoy said chattily.
“Apparently so.” Giles replied. “Buffy seems to know rather more about this sort of thing than I do.”
“Hop up on this table.” The Doctor patted a diagnostic bed.
Rupert complied and the Doctor began calibrating the readings from the bed to his computer. He ran a device that looked much like a saltshaker over the former librarian. It beeped several times. The Doctor’s eyes widened several times.
“According to my readings, you are a human male in your early forties. You’re in very good shape athletically. Your body appears to have suffered from a rather great deal of trauma. You have, well, a lot of scar tissue and according to my readings; you’ve been concussed quite a few times. Based on this diagnosis, I’d say you are some type of soldier. You’ve seen battle and it hasn’t been particularly kind to you.”
Giles smiled somewhat ruefully. “Buffy and I have seen plenty of battle, but she is the warrior. I’m merely her teacher and her support system.”
The Doctor looked surprised again. “Buffy? That little bit of nothing is a warrior?” He chuckled. “What does she fight? Dust Bunnies?” He chuckled at his own joke.
Giles looked at him. “Usually vampires, but sometimes demons and other supernatural beings. Last year, she fought an evil Goddess.”
McCoy stopped his fiddling and just looked at the former librarian. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Giles smiled thinly. “Our world is older than you know and contrary to popular beliefs did not begin as a paradise.” Buffy, he reflected, was right. He did love that particular speech. “It was the home of demons, creatures of utter evil. Then they began losing their sway upon our earth and the way was made clear for mortal creatures. Still, the battle raged on and the forces of light were in trouble. Then, one day, a girl was born. She had the power, the strength and skill to fight the darkness and win. She was the first Slayer. Into each generation is born one girl with the power to fight evil, Buffy is the Slayer for her generation.”
“Hmmmm,” was the Doctor’s comment. He looked up as Buffy walked into the room holding the skimpy garment tightly closed behind her.
“Are you all right, love?” Giles asked.
“Yeah. I’m cool.” She told him.
“I can have the temperature adjusted if you are uncomfortable, Buffy.” The Doctor offered.
She rolled her eyes at Giles. “Nah. It’s a, whatchamacallit, figure of speech. Means, I’m OK.”
“Ah.” He nodded. Patting the table next to Giles, he asked her to hop up on it.
She did and he began calibrating her results. This time, his eyebrows nearly climbed off his face in surprise.
“You aren’t entirely human.” He told her in amazement.
“I’m the Slayer.” She replied then looked at Giles. “I told you so.”
“Buffy, you were born to human parents. Any anomalies that the good Doctor has found are just that—anomalies. It doesn’t mean you aren’t human.” Giles gave the Doctor a stern look.
“There are some very unusual readings in your DNA.” McCoy rubbed his chin. “I can’t explain this—I’ve never seen it before.”
“What?” She asked him, curious.
“There are indications that you have died—several times in fact.” McCoy looked deeply puzzled.
“Oh, that.” Buffy grinned. “Yeah. I’ve died three times, though two of them were only for a couple of minutes.”
Giles looked at her, startled. “There was a third death? When? Why wasn’t I told of this?”
“Oh, it was last year when Warren killed Tara and shot me. I flatlined on the operating table but Willow did her thing and brought me back.” She shrugged. “You were still in England then and it didn’t seem important when you consider everything else that followed.”
Giles nodded. “Well, I can see how you might have that opinion. But, Buffy, you know everything about you is of vital interest to me. Never keep such things from me, beloved.”
“Sorry, Rupert. It just sort of slipped my mind.” Buffy said contritely.
McCoy cleared his throat. “So, you’ve been dead three times? Technically dead?”
“Uh huh.” Buffy nodded. “Second time was almost permanent. I was dead for about three months. Fell through a mystical portal and got all my juice sucked out. On the up side, I did stave off another apocalypse.”
“You were dead for three months.” McCoy repeated to clarify. “Am I not understanding things here, Buffy? Mostly when people die, they don’t come back. It’s sort of a rule.”
“Yeah. I know. I’m funny about that. My friend Willow—she’s a very powerful witch—performed a spell that brought me back. They didn’t dig my body up though and I had to dig my way out of my coffin. I still get a little claustrophobic in tight places and I have to sleep with a light on.” She shuddered. “I’m doing better though. I hardly ever wake up screaming anymore.”
McCoy shuddered. “Tell me about being dead.”
“Well, I went to heaven. It was pretty neat. No trouble, no strife, just peace, contentment, happiness.” She sighed. “It was nice.”
“Were you aware that you had died?” McCoy wanted to know.
“I guess. I knew my time had come and I was all right with it.” Buffy was blasé.
McCoy didn’t know what to do so he turned back to his machines. “You have very unusual readings even setting all that other aside. You must be very strong and I’m getting indications that you have very fast reflexes.”
“Mmmm.” She agreed. “One girl in all the world—that’s me. Well, except for when I died and my replacement got called. So then there were two of us. A vamp killed Kendra and Faith was called to replace her. Faith went nuts and killed people and now she’s serving time in the state penitentiary in LA. If Faith dies one of the Slayers-in-Training will be called.”
McCoy was silent. He simply didn’t know what to make of this. Nurse Chapel touched Buffy on her shoulder. “You can get dressed now.”
“Who are the Slayers-in-Training?” McCoy asked against his better judgment. Buffy and Giles took turns explaining about the First Evil as they dressed. They explained about the Watcher’s Council and how the men and women devoted their lives to raising and training potential Slayers.
“Giles is my Watcher.” Buffy said tenderly.
“I thought he was your husband.” McCoy protested.
“Yeah. We got married in that last reality so Gilligan wouldn’t have to marry the gorilla or something.” Buffy explained breezily.
“Uh huh.” McCoy grunted. The door to the main room opened and Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock walked in.
Giles began putting his shirt back on. The men were horrified to see the massive scars covering his back and shoulders.
“What happened to you?” Kirk asked him.
“Hmmm?” Giles said distractedly. “Oh, you mean my scars.” He looked at Buffy who was now fully dressed.
Buffy looked at the Captain. “My first lover kidnapped Giles and tortured the hell out of him. We got him free, but he was pretty beat up by that time.”
Giles touched her face softly. “Not your fault, Buffy.”
“I know. You always say that.” Buffy said with a teary smile.
“Because its true. I had information that he wanted and hurting you through me was just incidental.” Giles patted her shoulder.
She leaned her head against his chest and hugged him tightly. The three men watched with interest. Nurse Chapel had tears in her eyes. When the couple finally broke apart they turned to Captain Kirk.
Buffy spoke first. “So, you have a place where we can rest?”
“Yes.” He walked to the intercom and pushed the button. “Mr. Chekov, please report to sickbay.”
A couple of minutes later a very young man bounded into the room. He smiled at Buffy and shook hands with Giles.
“This is ensign Chekov. He will be your guide while you are here.” Kirk explained. “Show them to their quarters, ensign.”
“Aye, aye, sir.” The young man replied. “If you would be so good as to follow me?”
Buffy and Giles trailed after him.
Kirk turned to McCoy. “Well?”
Bones shook his head. “Damned if I know. They are the strangest pair I’ve ever met—and that’s saying something. She claims to have died three times and her medical history seems to back that up. He’s one tough old bird too, let me tell you. He’s got the body of a much younger man and he’s received enough injuries to last for a lifetime. She’s more than human and didn’t seem surprised when I pointed it out. Normal humans aren’t that strong. Her reflexes are extraordinary and I believe her senses are more finely tuned than ours.”
“Were they armed?” McCoy led the two men to a small table where the contents from the strangers’ pockets were laid out for inspection. “They were both wearing these things.” McCoy held up two small crosses. “He had this larger one stuck in the interior pocket of his coat. She was practically bristling with these.” The Doctor held up a small pointed stick. “He had a couple of them on him as well.”
“What are they?” Kirk asked curiously.
“Beats me.” McCoy allowed.
“The necklaces are religious symbols.” Spock told them. “Early Christians used to wear them. I do not know what the sticks are for.”
“Have their room monitored, Spock. Let me know if one of them says something interesting.”
The Vulcan nodded.
Pavel Chekov practically bounced wherever he went. He was a fountain of energy—virtually a poster child for good health and exuberance. He thought Buffy was gorgeous and showed it. Rupert found himself wanting to swat the vibrant young man with a rolled up newspaper. He reminded him very much of an excitable puppy deeply in need of training.
His accent thickened when he forgot himself. “Zo, ehre you hunkry?”
Buffy looked at Giles who nodded. “Yes. We could stand to eat something.”
“Zen ve vill stop at za commizzary.” The young ensign was as good as his word as he swept them into a large room filled with tables and booths. People had lined up at a machine of some sort in the wall. They spoke their order into an intercom and seconds later it appeared in a compartment of the same wall. They carried their trays to tables to eat.
“Vat vill you heve?” Chekov asked her.
“I’d really like a hamburger with onion rings and a big glass of diet Coke if I can get it.” Buffy told him hungrily. Anything that didn’t involve coconuts or turtle eggs was going to be super.
“And you, zur?” He asked Giles.
“I’d like a beef pasty, mushy peas with vinegar, and a pot of Earl Grey tea.” He was practically salivating at the thought.
Chekov spoke their orders into the machine. They could hear a low hum and seconds later a tray with their orders appeared in the food slot. Buffy and Giles fell on the food like starving wolverines. They had been stranded on the island for almost a month and were sick to death of the limited fare the castaways had at their disposal. A chance at real food wasn’t to be missed.
Buffy thought everything tasted great, even though the Coke was a little sweeter than she was used to. They must have changed the formula again, she mused. Giles pronounced his fare excellent. Even the peas were done to his taste. He sipped a steaming cup of tea and looked about the room.
“This is kind of cool isn’t it, Rupert?” Buffy asked him with a grin.
“I must say, yes. It is very cool.” He put his hand over hers and squeezed it gently.
Buffy smiled at the Ensign. “So, you’re name is Chekov? Like the author?”
“You have read Chekov?” He asked her eagerly. Discussing all things Russian was his passion.
“God, no.” Buffy told him with a laugh. “But I have heard of him.”
“I’ve read Chekov.” Giles admitted.
Just as the two of them were about to go off into a boring book talk, Buffy yawned. It recalled the men to the time and place. “Ve must get you to your quarters.” The ensign said. “Ve vill talk books later, yes?”
“I should enjoy that.” Rupert said smiling softly.
They were led along another corridor until they came to a compartment that the officer said would be their rooms. He showed them where everything was and how to use the facilities. “You can get food and drinks here.” He explained the machine. “And this is the computer. You can use it to find out all sorts of things. Just address it, computer-and tell it what you want.” Buffy was fascinated by the technical gizmos and wanted to play with everything. Giles, being the true technophobe that he was, was horrified by the amount of machinery he was expected to learn. They finally bid the ensign a smiling goodnight.
“Well, this is certainly different than what we were expecting.” Giles said finally.
Buffy snorted derisively. “You can say that again. How come every time magic is used around us, something wacky happens?”
“I have been speculating on that very thing myself. I have to assume that it has something to do with your aura as a Slayer. Since you are a magical being in your own right, you are probably resistant to the magic of others.”
“That would explain me, but you’ve done magic before and had it go wrong too. How does that tie in?” She asked him curiously.
He sighed. “I was a young and foolish man, Buffy. I played with forces that simply got away from me. And as a Watcher in training, I had already been touched by the magic of the Slayer.”
“Even though I hadn’t been born yet?” Buffy asked in disbelief.
“There is always a Slayer.” He reminded her. “My family has been around them for generations. Its quite likely that some of their magic has rubbed off on us.”
“Poor Rupert.” She told him softly. “Poor boy.” She stroked his hair back from his face gently.
“I love you, my sweet Buffy.” He said.
They used the ‘fresher’ to clean themselves. “Well, that’s never going to replace a hot bath.” Buffy sneered.
Rupert agreed heartily. “All this technical wizardry is interesting but somehow very sterile. I realize this is a military vessel and probably not prone to excessive ornamentation, but it’s still bloody bleak!”
He sat on the bed. “Which side to you want?”
“I guess the wall side if that’s OK?” She asked him.
“Yes, I’d just as soon sleep on the outer edge anyway.” They removed their garments and put them into the bin that the ensign had indicated. Seconds later, their clothes appeared in a wall slot, cleaned and folded, ready to be put back on.
“That’s handy.” Buffy commented.
“Quite.”
To their deep surprise, they slept like logs all night. Giles woke first and spent a good twenty minutes watching his sleeping love. They still had not consummated their marriage vows, deeming the situation too unusual to be a good basis for their relationship. Giles wanted to court her, give her flowers and candy, take her to nice restaurants and everything else that she deserved. Instead, they were trapped in alternate dimensions based on a TV series. It was enough to drive a man mad.
Buffy woke to the feeling that she was being watched. She opened her eyes. “Hello, Rupert.”
“Good morning, love.” He told her with a smile.
She stretched. “Any ideas about getting us home?”
“Nothing concrete. How about you?”
“I dunno. I think we should talk to the Vulcan. He seems to know a bunch of stuff. He probably has all kinds of good ideas.” Buffy told him.
“He did seem quite intelligent.” Giles allowed. “What do you know about this universe?”
She pondered. “It’s supposed to be set in Earth’s future by a couple of centuries—not really clear on the timeline. Humans have expanded all over the place and they’ve made friends and enemies. The Vulcans are friendly. The Romulans, who look pretty much just like them, aren’t. Uh, then there are the Klingons—way bad. Very warrior oriented guys. Romulans are sly and clever, Klingons are just aggressive as hell and about as subtle as a battle axe.” She wrinkled her brows trying to remember. “Um, there is another group called Andorians or something—they have antennae. I think they’re really emotional, but I don’t remember if they have any particular agenda.”
“Are we likely to run into any of these alien races?” Giles asked, somewhat alarmed at the prospect. Demons he could handle, aliens were just too bizarre.
“I suppose so. This is the Starship Enterprise. Its mission was to explore. They were always getting into trouble but Kirk got them out. As I recall, there’s an engineer named Scotty who always hauls their electronic butts out of the fire by crossing a couple of wires and charging up the batteries.” She thought for a minute more. “Uh, if they offer you one of those red shirts, don’t take it.”
He looked at her curiously. “Cannon fodder.” She explained.
“Ah. Well, I suppose we should be getting up and figure out what we need to do today.”
“Or we could stay here and you could make love to me for a few hours.” Buffy suggested.
He rolled over her and kissed her passionately. “Whilst I would like nothing better, I believe we should proceed slowly on that front.”
“OK, caution-guy. Let’s get up and talk to that computer thing.”
Meanwhile Kirk and Spock watched the monitor that showed the couple’s quarters. “What do you think is going on with them, Spock?”
“I do not know, Captain. On one hand, they seem very ignorant of even basic amenities, yet on the other, she, at least, is familiar with the ship, the political situation, and our mission. She knew about Mr. Scott without ever hearing him mentioned. Yet they spoke of magic last night. They seem intelligent, but to believe in such superstitious belief systems indicates primitive thought processes.” He thought for a moment. “Have you noticed the confusion with verb tenses they use? It’s almost as if she’s explaining the future as something that has happened in the past.”
“I did catch that. She seems to think highly of you. Perhaps you should offer your services to help them do whatever they think they need to do.” Kirk suggested. They turned back to the screen to watch Buffy jumping in and out of the pneumatic doors, laughing as they opened and closed behind her. They saw Giles come out of the ‘fresher’.
“Buffy, stop playing with the door.” He admonished.
“But its too cool, Giles.” She pouted at him.
He smiled but told her she wasn’t four and was she ready to access the computer?
“Oh, I guess.” She moved back into the room. “Work before fun. Wait till we get home and I can tell the guys about this. Xander will be green with envy.” She looked around at him, tilting her head sideways. “You know what would be great? If we could get a hold of some technology or information or something that would give us a lead on the First.”
“That would be good.” He told her. He went to the food unit and ordered them both a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, and fried potatoes. “Do you want tea or coffee?”
“Tea, I think.” She said, wondering if she could find some time for a decent workout.
“Have you thought about how much we should tell them?” He asked her.
“Some. Will they believe us if we just tell them the truth? I think Vulcans can do some sort of mind-reading thing, but they need to touch you and if I remember correctly its pretty uncomfortable for them. You might want to not let him touch you if you can help it.”
“Yes. I certainly see your point. Do you think he read anything from me earlier?”
“Probably, but we were still sort of confused so hopefully it wasn’t a lot.”
They took their food and sat in front of the computer terminal. She looked at her Watcher with a smile. “OK, here it goes.” She cleared her throat. “Computer?”
<WORKING>
“Do you have any information about the Slayer or the Watcher’s Council?”
<WORKING….NEGATIVE. NO INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON THESE TOPICS. PLEASE PROVIDE FRAME OF REFERENCE>
“Computer. Please provide any information on vampires. Uh, limit to Earth.”
<WORKING>
VAMPIRES: MOST FREQUENT REFERNCES TO HUMANS BROUGHT BACK FROM THE DEAD FOR EVIL PURPOSES, DRINK LIVING HUMAN BLOOD FOR SUSTENANCE. MYTHOLOGICAL. NO BASIS IN REALITY. WOULD YOU CARE TO EXPLORE THE MYTHS SURROUNDING VAMPIRISM>
“No, Computer. Thank you for the information.” Buffy thought it best to be polite, after all, this thing was driving the ship that was hurtling them through space at a pretty good clip. “You want to ask it anything, Giles? Vampires, Watchers, and Slayers don’t exist in this reality. We could ask it about witchcraft and magic, I guess.”
He sighed. “What good would it do? I think this universe must be based on different principles than our own, Buffy. If we knew more science, we might be able to figure something out, but that has never been an interest of mine, unfortunately.”
“Not for me, either. All I know is from watching shows on TV and I would guess that we aren’t exactly talking reality based stuff here.”
He chuckled. “Shall we go exploring? It might be informative.”
“Yeah. Sounds like a plan.”
They got up and exited their room, looking up and down the broad, generic corridors curiously. “Think we should leave a trail of breadcrumbs?” Buffy joked.
“If we ask that dreaded machine for directions, we should do well enough.” Giles told her with a grin. “What do you want to look at first?”
“How about some place to exercise? I need to train and burn off some energy.” Buffy stretched and tensed her muscles.
“That does sound enjoyable. Surely on a ship this size they have exercise rooms.” He strode to the intercom and pressed the button. “Um, Computer?”
<WORKING>
“Are there any exercise rooms nearby?” He was rather tentative about this arrangement.
<AFFIRMATIVE>
He waited, then, realizing his error he prompted it for directions. Soon, they stood inside a medium sized room filled with mats and other types of workout equipment.
“I wish we had some sweats.” Buffy told Giles.
“Yes. These clothes are well-made, but we’ve been wearing them every day for a month. I’m getting rather tired of them.”
“Yeah.” Buffy agreed looking at her tank top and jeans. “I wonder if they could get us some changes of clothes?”
Just then the door swished open and the Captain and First Officer, Dr. McCoy and another man they hadn’t met walked into the room. He turned out to be the Chief Engineer, Montgomery Scott, called Scotty by Kirk and McCoy.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Giles told him as they shook hands.
“Did you come to work out?” Kirk asked.
“Yes, if that would be possible. We do need some other clothing however.” Giles explained.
Kirk nodded and walked over to a wall. He tapped out something on a control panel that popped up and soon a small door opened in the wall. Inside the hidden compartment were two workout suits, one in Giles size and one in Buffy’s. “There’s a changing room over there.” He gestured to another wall. Scotty showed them how to open it. “You get changed and we can all work out together.”
Buffy smiled. “That should be fun.”
Five minutes later she and Giles reappeared, ready to work out. They worked through their warm up routine and decided hand-to-hand training would be the first part of the actual session. They squared off and began sparring. The Enterprise crew thought that Giles would take it easy on the small girl. They were shocked and amazed when he came at her as fast and hard as he could. They could tell he wasn’t pulling his blows because they heard the occasional meaty smack of his fist as it connected with some part of the tiny blonde. What was even more astonishing was that she not only took his blows, she returned them. In fact, Giles was driven back in a very few moments and was finally driven to his knees by a particularly fast blow below his ear. She immediately stopped. “Are you OK, sweetie?”
Sweat was dripping off the large man in torrents. He carefully nodded his head. “I’m fine, love. I think you may be telegraphing your blows again. We need to work on that.”
Kirk and McCoy exchanged glances. The Doctor stepped forward. “Are you all right, Mr. Giles? That was quite a blow you took there.” He tipped Rupert’s chin back and looked at the red welt forming under his ear.
“Oh my yes, I’m fine.” Giles reassured him. “This is nothing compared to what we normally face. I just wish Buffy had a work out partner that matched her speed and strength. I’m just not up to it.”
Spock stepped forward. “Perhaps I could offer my assistance, Mr. Giles? I have faster reflexes and greater strength than humans.”
Giles looked at Buffy. She shrugged and nodded. “Sure, that would be great. I’ll try not to hurt him.”
The two opponents squared off. Spock feinted right and Buffy pretended to fall for it. When he was slightly overextended she flipped over his shoulder and gave him a blow to the kidneys that nearly bowled him over. He turned quickly. She spun and lifted into a kick that missed his jaw by a scant inch clipping him instead on the shoulder. It overbalanced him and he went down. She was on him so fast none of his companions even saw her move. Giles merely smiled as she pinned the Vulcan and held a stake over his heart. She rose immediately and gave him a hand up.
McCoy looked at Kirk. “Where did she get the stick?”
“Good fight.” Buffy told the Vulcan. “You’re pretty fast.”
If the Vulcan could be said to make a facial expression, he certainly was doing so now. “You are an excellent fighter. Your speed and strength are fascinating.”
“It’s what I do, what I am: the Slayer.” Buffy told him with a shrug and a smile. “I’ve been fighting for my life since I was fifteen. You pick up a few things along the way.” She began a series of warm down exercises and left the men talking. When she was finished she joined the group. “I need a shower.”
McCoy showed her where the facilities were and they all made plans to meet in the central room when everybody was cleaned up. The men from the Enterprise used the absence of the two visitors to discuss them. “She’s fast. Very fast.” Kirk noted. “Bones, you said her reflexes were above normal and so was her strength. Did you see any indication of this kind of, of excess?”
“No. Outwardly she merely looks like a healthy young woman, but neither strong nor particularly speedy. She took Spock down like he was a rank amateur.”
Spock nodded. “She was extremely strong. I do not know how a human could stand against her at all. Mr. Giles must be extraordinary.”
McCoy shook his head. “He’s fit—he has the body of a much younger man, but he’s pure human.”
“What is this ‘Slayer’ business?” Mr. Scott asked curiously.
“She believes she’s some sort of hero whose duty is to protect humanity against vampires.” Kirk explained.
“Vampires.” Scott repeated flatly.
“Fascinating.” Spock commented, rubbing his shoulder.
“You hurt?” McCoy asked.
“No, not significantly. I was taken by surprise, however. Her speed and agility are astounding.”
They were about to continue their discussion when the two visitors exited the ‘fresher’ rooms. Buffy had pulled her hair back into some sort of twist that appeared to be fastened by one of the pointy sticks she carried.
Scott stepped forward. “So, you kill vampires?”
“Seven years and counting.” Buffy confirmed.
“But, real vampires?” Scott couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around the concept.
“And demons and assorted oogly-booglys. Fought a God a couple of years ago. That battle was a killer. We lost a few people—oh, not from our group, but several hundred died in the final battle.” She looked depressed.
Giles touched her shoulder. “Not your fault, Buffy. Besides, the Knights were not exactly on our side. I can never forget that you lost your life in that battle.”
“I know. But they were people—I am supposed to protect them. And I chose to die.” She said.
“Yes, under normal circumstances I would have been glad for you to protect them. However, I don’t feel all that bad that the Knights were destroyed. They would have killed us—and tried, if you recall. Had they not been wiped out to the last man, they would have continued to try to kill Dawn.”
She nodded. “I know. I just wish they could have worked with us instead of alone. And lets not forget the people Glory brain-sucked, or the people killed by the Star beast thing that Ben called up. It was pretty bloody.”
Giles shrugged. “I’m not indifferent to their suffering or the pain their families went through, but ultimately, you are my concern, not them. When I lost you, my world ended.”
She put out her hand and touched his chest. “I’m here now.”
He reached up and covered her hand with his. “I thank God for that fact every day.”
Kirk cleared his throat, touched at the display of love and caring before him, but needing to get on with explanations. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”
Giles smiled slightly at the man’s perturbed tone. He told the story as closely as he could with Buffy interjecting comments now and then. Finally, the Starship Captain shook his head. “It’s not that I disbelieve you, but it’s pretty fantastic.”
Buffy laughed not entirely happily. “Welcome to my world.”
“Do you, any of you, have any idea how we can get home?” Giles asked desperately.
Scott and Spock looked at each other. “Temporal displacement—easy enough to remedy, but the dimensional travel—that’s a bit tricky.” Scott mused.
Spock, emerging from a deep period of thought, wondered if once the temporal displacement was remedied, they would automatically slip back into their own reality. “It is the nature of the Universe to persevere towards order. The two of you are out of sync with that balance. I will attempt to calculate a formula that would allow you to slip back into your own world. It may take some time.”
Buffy and Giles looked at each other, then back at the Vulcan. “That’s fantastic, Mr. Spock! All we want is to go home again!” Buffy was nearly hopping with anticipation. Unable to contain her exuberance for another second, she tore around the room in a series of cartwheels and gymnastic twists that awed the others. She finally came to a halt in front of Giles whom she kissed. He was laughing at her antics. “Come on, love. We need to let these good men get back to their work.”
They explored more of the ship and spent a pleasant three hours wandering the gardens. They were beautiful and full of exotic plants. The gardener was a man from a race Buffy had never heard of before. He was tall and thin and very blue. His name, he told them, was Var. “It’s the short form, but humans seem to have difficulty with anything longer.”
He showed them around. The plants were from all parts of the known galaxy. He introduced them to the great flowering Xankax of Rigel II, the delicate Miratel from Vulcan, plus a myriad of other beautiful and exotic blooms. He gave Buffy a blossom that was furry and actually crawled up her arm to snuggle softly against her neck. It smelled of warm fur and purred as it cuddled her. “I can’t believe this is a plant.” She told him.
“Yes, they are great favorites for families with children. The blooms live for several days and the children make pets out of them. Humans call them snuggles.” Var told her.
“How do I care for it?” She wanted to know.
“Just let it rest on your skin. It draws its nutrients from contact with your body. Come back here in two days and let it touch the parent plant. It will climb off and meld with its parent. You may have another blossom at that time if you wish.”
Buffy thanked him and she and Giles left. “I love this thing, Giles. It’s like having a pet that doesn’t need any work. It’s telling me that it loves me more than anything the whole time it’s touching me. If we could take this back with us, we’d be so rich there wouldn’t be enough money on the planet for us.”
“God knows what the introduction of such a foreign plant would do to the earth’s ecology, Buffy.” Giles told her. He was jealous of the plant. It was touching his Buffy and telling her how much it loved her—something he was growing rather desperate to do himself. He felt an unaccountable urge to rip the blossom off her and step on it. He restrained himself.
They saw several plays put on by the ship’s Drama club. One was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that Buffy secretly thought was very stupid and boring, the other was a murder mystery set on a foreign star she had never heard of. It was very weird. She enjoyed being with Giles, but the entertainment was lame. When they returned to their cabin, Giles found out that the computer had access to the ship’s library. He sank into it like he’d been born to read on a computer screen. Buffy grew extremely bored and told him she was going exploring. He nodded without looking up and she wasn’t entirely sure he heard her. She didn’t grudge him the book time. After all, he hadn’t been able to read anything for the entire time they were on the island and he was probably suffering book withdrawal.
She wandered down a new corridor and found the video arcade. Most of the games were totally lame because this new society didn’t encourage aggression, but she found a couple that were very neat. She joined a group playing a game based on hunting vampires and tracking them down. It took her a few minutes to get into the feel of the thing since she had never experienced anything like virtual reality before. Within fifteen minutes, she was kicking vamp butt with the most skilled of the players. It was practically like being home without all the pain of getting hurt constantly. Gradually, the other players backed off to watch her until she was the only one playing. She topped the previous high score and kept on going. She didn’t realize how long she had been playing till she finished the game and killed the last monster. It had been tough but nothing like the reality she faced every night of her life. She took off the headset and shook her hair out. “Wow, that was fun.”
The crewmembers gathered around her in awe. “How did you do that? I’ve never seen anybody complete that game, let alone somebody who’s never played it before.”
She grinned. “I’ve been playing this game for seven years only where I come from, it’s real.”
They clamored around her, begging for stories. She told them a few and watched their eyes get big as she described her battle with Lothos and how he had killed Merrick. She told how she had staked him with a flagpole. She told them about coming to the town of Sunnydale and how it was seated on the Hellmouth, about falling in love with a vampire, and then about having to send him tumbling into the vortex to save the world. They were shaken by the look in her eyes as she related the ghastly events. McCoy, who had been watching her on his monitor, swore and headed off to the game room. He couldn’t believe that somebody had suffered the things she had endured and still kept going.
About that time, Giles looked up from the computer screen and noticed that Buffy was missing. He wondered where she had gone and felt guilty that he had abandoned her to read. “Er, Computer?”
<WORKING>
“Do you know where Buffy is?”
<AFFIRMATIVE>
He requested and received directions to the game room and took off at a lope. He got there just ahead of Dr. McCoy to find Buffy surrounded by fascinated crewmembers.
“Buffy, love, what ever are you doing?” He asked her.
She looked up and grinned at him. “Just telling the guys about Slaying, Giles.”
Dr. McCoy walked in just in time to hear her reply. He stayed to the back of the group, but observed her closely.
“What stories were you telling, Buffy?” Giles questioned.
“Oh, I had gotten up to dusting the Master.” She told him with a smile.
He shuddered. “That was one of the two worst nights of my existence as a Watcher.” He told her sadly.
Somebody toward the rear of the group asked what the other one had been. Giles was quiet for a moment, looking down before he began to speak. He told the story of Glory, the appearance of Dawn, the death of Buffy’s mother and the bitter, bitter night of the final battle. The silence was absolute when he told them how Buffy had sacrificed herself so that her sister could live. He told about the months afterwards without her and the grief they all felt. He told them about going back to England to try to begin again and of the phone call he had received telling him that Buffy was alive once again.
Buffy took up the narrative, telling how one minute she was in heaven and the next was trying to claw herself free of her own grave. “I was just lucky they didn’t put me in a cement vault.” She shuddered. “As it was, my hands were pretty badly cut up and I still have occasional bouts with claustrophobia.”
Dr. McCoy, deeply concerned, saw the Watcher’s hands clench. “I would never have let them do that to you, had I known, Buffy.”
She reached out and clasped her hands over his. “I know. It’s over. Don’t worry about it now.”
The crew was treated to the sight of the small woman comforting a man who was twice her age and doing a pretty fair job of it. She took him in her arms and held him tightly stroking his back and murmuring reassurances. “Let’s go back to our cabin, Rupert. We can talk there.” Buffy stood and led the trembling man away.
The Doctor watched, wondering if he should offer them something to calm them down but decided against it. This was a long-term trauma and they had been dealing with it on their own for a while. He would make sure they both knew he was there if they wished to speak about their experiences, but he wouldn’t push.
Buffy led Giles back to their room. She held his hand and spoke soothingly to him the entire way. Finally, he dragged his sleeve across his eyes and looked down at her. “I actually came to apologize for falling into my book. I didn’t mean to desert you.”
She smiled and patted his hand. “That’s OK, Rupert. I don’t expect you to follow me around twenty-four/seven. You never did before.”
“We weren’t married before, nor were we stranded in an alternate dimension.” He said strongly.
“No, that’s true. But we are with the good guys here. All these people are heroes.” She soothed him.
She pulled his jacket off and set it aside then unbuttoned his shirt and removed it. She unfastened his belt and pulled it out of his trousers before pushing him down on the edge of the mattress. Kneeling at his feet she pulled off his shoes and socks. She picked up one of his large feet and rested it against her thigh while she stroked it. “How does that feel?”
“Good.” He allowed with a gulp.
She switched to the other foot and rubbed that one as well. “I like your feet.” She told him.
He flushed a deep red. Talking about his feet while she held them in her hands was so very intimate. “So you’ve said. I, I’m glad.”
She bent over and kissed the foot resting on her thigh. “We really ought to talk more, Giles. I’ve neglected you so much over the past seven years, I can’t understand why you still even talk to me.”
He gripped her arms and pulled her onto his lap. “I talk to you because I love you. It’s the simplest thing in the world, my dear.”
“I love you too, Rupert. I wish it hadn’t taken a gazillion attempted apocalypses, three deaths, and a trip to an alternate dimension to figure things out.”
“Well, my love, that is what our lives are about. If I had simply been a librarian at your high school, and you simply a student, we might never have been given the opportunity to see past our outward appearances. You would have found a handsome boy and gone off with him and I would probably have found a teacher or shopkeeper or nearly anyone to be with, but it wouldn’t have been the same.”
“You had Jenny for a while.” She said sadly.
“It wouldn’t have worked out even if she had lived, Buffy. I was attracted to her—she was a lovely young woman. But ultimately, we were too different, too set in our ways for each other. I could never have been vivacious enough for her, nor she sedate enough for me.”
Buffy laughed. “You think you want sedate? No way, Rupert. That’s thirty plus years of Watcher training talking, not my Rupert Giles’ inner heart. She wouldn’t have worked for you because you are a feral tiger in a tweed suit. She thought you needed bringing out of your shell but she couldn’t have handled the man under it. You would have terrified her. Heck, you did terrify her. Let her have just one demon possession and she was ready to call it quits. Huh!” Buffy said stuffily. “And while we’re on the subject, look at Olivia. She was drop-dead gorgeous, a total babe. She left just because we had evil guys ripping the hearts out of a few people. No guts.” She shook her head sadly.
He buried his head in her shoulder, laughing till his body shook. “I suppose I’ve never looked at it quite that way before.”
Buffy looked up at him patted his cheek and stepped off his lap. “You know, I think there’s some issues we should probably discuss since we’re on this topic.” She paused. “Do you have a problem with powerful women?”
He looked at her in astonishment. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“Well, let’s just say I’ve noticed a pattern in your behavior when you get around a woman who’s assertive. You don’t particularly shine.”
“Oh, really. Give me an example then.” He said.
“Gwendolyn Post.” Buffy said.
“She was a psychotic murdering bitch who tried to bash my brains in with a statue. Of course I didn’t like her.” He protested.
“Yeah, and I grant that she had Bitch written all over her, but you didn’t like her from about ten seconds after meeting her.” Buffy pointed out. “And that was well before we knew about the psychotic bits.”
“She was pushy and rude and denigrated my abilities as a Watcher.” He said firmly.
“Mmmm. Not the most pleasant person we’ve run across.” Buffy agreed. “How about Professor Walsh? You hated her.”
“I was jealous that she was taking you away from me.” He admitted freely. “Besides, she certainly didn’t try to make herself pleasant.”
“No, and we had that whole psychotic thing going on again. But I think you’re missing my point on this. Both of them, despite, uh, personality quirks, were very powerful, self-assured women. You haven’t been the same with me this past year since I got myself back either. Last year, you told me I needed to be able to stand on my own two feet, that you couldn’t be there for me anymore. Ring a bell?”
He passed his hand over his face briefly. “I’ve apologized for that, Buffy…”
She held up her hand and stopped him. “Not the point, Rupert. What I’m getting at was the minute I started showing any assertiveness, trying to get myself back under control, you took off. When the First started acting up, you dumped all the responsibility on me. When I accepted it, you immediately began undercutting my authority with the SIT’s. I told you we needed Spike; you tried to kill him. I’m not blaming you or accusing you or anything. I totally understand your feelings about Spike, and I understand you’ve been the one in control forever, but I want to make sure that you don’t start resenting me when I do stand on my own. I’m the Slayer and the power is mine. I may not always make the best choices, but the buck stops here, Rupert. I don’t have a fall guy to blame when things go wrong. I accept that.” She paused for breath, willing him to understand. “I love you and I want us to be partners, not student and teacher, not Watcher and Slayer, I want us to be full partners. Just as I accept you know all things bookish and magicky, you need to accept that I understand the heart of Evil. Can we build a life based on equality?”
He looked down and thought about what she said. Had he changed towards her when she began asserting herself, began growing up? He thought of his actions and thought that she might have a point. “Power is an insidious thing, Buffy. I have had power at my command since I was assigned to be your Watcher. I commanded the power of the Slayer. That is not a small thing. When my power was threatened, by Gwendolyn Post, by Maggie Walsh, by the very Council, and ultimately by you threatening to take yourself out from my control, I reacted badly. I’ve never thought about it before. I do love you, you know. Not just because you are the Slayer, literally the most powerful human to walk the planet, but because you are Buffy, the strongest person I have ever met. Time after time, you have faced the direst adversity and risen above it. How can I not love you for that? Can you forgive me? I’ve been blind, not only to my own nature, but to what I was doing with you.”
She sat next to him on the bed and hugged him. “Rupert, I’m not exactly insight girl myself. I’ve made mistakes, huge ones. I’ve tried to put you in a role that you shouldn’t ever have had to fill. For seven years, you let me skate on the edges of my responsibility. You let me grow up. It was a gift I can never repay. Let’s don’t let there be apologies between us for things in the past. That’s over and done and we have a clean slate ahead of us. After we kick the First’s butt, what say you and I go on a honeymoon and get to know each other as equals and partners?”
“You still want that with me?” He asked.
“More than ever. You are my hero, Rupert. I love you. You’ve stood by me, nurtured me, loved me. How can I not love you back? You are like the other half of me. Smarter, older, and a lot taller, but my soul mate.”
He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “When did you get to be so wise, Buffy?”
“Hey, I learned from the best, Rupert.” She leaned into him and he put his arm around her again and pulled her back onto his lap. Looking deep into her eyes, they kissed. It wasn’t by any means their first, but it felt like it. It burgeoned with promise, the hope of a new beginning, and a love that just might be eternal.
“Would you let me love you tonight, Buffy?” He asked her.
“If you’ll let me love you back, Giles.” She told him softly.
McCoy reached out and turned off the room monitor. It looked like these two were going to resolve their issues themselves. It pleased him.
Spock had been working diligently on a formula to return the dimensional travelers and thought he was finally on to something. He was eating breakfast with Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy and mulling over several possibilities when Mr. and Mrs. Giles walked into the commissary. They had a look on their faces that puzzled him. They looked replete though clearly they hadn’t yet broken their fast.
Dr. McCoy waved them over to their table. “Hello. Did you have a good night?”
The newcomers blushed a deep red. “Um, yeah. It was fine.” Buffy couldn’t meet their eyes.
Giles took her hand. “We, uh, we actually slept quite well.” He too couldn’t make eye contact.
Kirk’s gaze narrowed then widened in surprise as he figured out what must have happened. He was a long-time veteran of the bedroom, but he felt his ears pinkening as their obvious embarrassment made itself felt.
“Oh.” He said. “Um, Spock thinks he may be on the trail of a solution for you.”
Buffy looked at the Vulcan. “That’s great, Mr. Spock! We need to get home. We have another big evil brewin’ up apocalypticy kinds of stuff and we need to get back and kick evil butt.”
McCoy looked down to hide his grin, both at Buffy’s verbal acumen and Spock’s reaction to it. The Vulcan’s eyebrows climbed so high they were nearly at his hairline. He clearly didn’t know what response was required so answered with a rather ironic ‘indeed?’ The Doctor met Kirk’s eyes and both men had to quickly break eye contact before bursting into laughter.
Mr. Spock pulled out a thing that might have been the descendant of a laptop and began explaining a mathematical formula to Giles whose eyes, while not exactly crossing, did start looking rather glazed. He was able to follow the gist of the plan, however and asked several intelligent questions that impressed the Vulcan science officer.
After breakfast, Giles wanted to continue reading and Buffy wanted to go wandering around the ship. Giles admonished her to not stay away very long, but let her go. She had seen how the furry plant bothered Giles so she returned it to the greenhouse garden with a pang of regret. Next she wandered into an exercise room and spent a good hour doing gymnastics. Several crew wandered in and watched her. Chekov came in and offered to fence with her. She thought that was too good to miss. She didn’t often get the chance to swordfight with someone other than her husband and relished the different moves. After she had disarmed him three times, he conceded that she was better than him.
Wracking his brain for something to amuse the beautiful blonde, Chekov offered to show her the sky from space. She agreed and he took her to an observation room. At first, the feeling of falling was unpleasant, but she was finally able to open her eyes and look at the spacescape. “It looks like a giant screensaver.” She told the ensign.
They laughed after she explained the reference. Finally, she stood. “I have to get back to Giles now, Mr. Chekov. It’s been fun. Thanks.”
“You are entirely velcome, Buffy. Perhaps ve could do this again sometime?” He asked.
“Maybe we can bring my husband along next time.” Buffy smiled. “I’m sure Giles wouldn’t want to pass up the chance to see space.”
“Do you mind if I eske a personal qvestion, Buffy?” The ensign said.
“No, go ahead.”
“I vas vondering vhy you are married to a man so much older than you?” He paused. “Vas it an arranged marriage?”
“An arranged marriage?” She chuckled. “You mean like my parents made me marry him or something?”
“Yes.” The young man nodded seriously.
“No.” She smiled. “I married Giles because I love him to pieces. He is the smartest man I know—and that includes your Vulcan buddy. He’s sweet and kind, but a wonderful fighter as well. I owe any decent character traits I have to Giles.”
“Oh. I suppose I vas hoping you might not be interested in him as a man.” He looked shyly down at his feet.
Buffy didn’t know what to say. She finally got it that the young man was interested in her romantically. “Giles is my husband, the man I love more than life itself.” She finally told him as she left him standing in the darkened room.
She got back to the tiny cabin she shared with Rupert and found him asleep at a computer terminal. She turned it off and gently picked him up and put him in the bed without waking him. After removing his shoes and socks, she pulled her own off and crawled in next to him. He immediately rolled over so he could hold her in his arms, still asleep.
When Giles woke about forty-five minutes later, he was surprised to find himself in bed. Buffy was holding him and was nuzzled against his chest in a way that made him want to weep with the sweetness of it. He slowly stroked her hair. She gradually woke up and looked at him. She grinned. “All done with your nap, baby?” She asked him.
“I wouldn’t have needed a nap if you hadn’t kept me up for hours last night.” He returned her grin.
“Well, there’s no denying you were ‘up’.” She giggled.
He rolled her onto her back and growled at her. “Minx.”
She looked up at him, a question on her face. “Isn’t that one of those tailless cats?”
He was stymied at the abrupt turn of the conversation. “Isn’t what a tailless cat?”
“You know, that minx thing.” She explained.
He hid his face in her shoulder and giggled uncontrollably.
“N, no.” He chortled when he had enough breath to speak. “That’s a Manx.”
“Oh, well, whatever, then.” She rubbed his back slowly. “I’ve had an interesting morning. Mr. Chekov had a pretty cool thing to show me. There’s this room that has a window that looks out into space. It was neat, once I got over being dizzy and feeling like I was going to fall. You need to see it.”
“I should like that.” He told her softly.
They lay on the strange mattress stroking each other softly, not to arouse passion, but simply to comfort each other in the midst of all the strangeness of their lives.
“How are we going to defeat the First, Giles?” She asked him quietly.
“I don’t know love, but we will. The world won’t end on our watch, sweetness.”
“I love you, Rupert.”
“I love you too, Buffy.”
Spock called the Captain over to his computer the next day. “Jim, I believe I have developed a mathematical formula that will allow us to duplicate conditions to get the travelers back to their own dimension. It will not, however, necessarily put them in the correct time period.”
Kirk called Buffy and Giles to the bridge meeting room and Spock explained the problem. “We can return you to your own dimension, but due to a flux partition in the time continuum will be unable to deposit you closer than one hundred years in your past.”
Buffy looked at Giles. “Huh?”
“I believe he means we can get back to our own universe, but not to our own time.” He pondered things for a few minutes. “It should be possible to move from the past to our own time with the resources we will have available to us. It is the problem of overcoming the dimensional barrier that has been stopping us.” He looked overjoyed. “Very good, Mr. Spock. And thank you.”
Buffy looked like she would have liked to kiss the Vulcan but refrained out of respect for his desire not to be touched. “Thank you. Oh, thanks so much. I wish there was something I could do to help you guys out. When can we try this thing?”
“We will need several days to position the ship and approximately 2.6634 hours to fine tune the transporter. After that, you will be able to leave at any time. We will be able to put you as close as 1880.”
Buffy looked at her husband. “If we show up in 1880 dressed like this, we’ll probably be arrested. Plus, we are going to need some money and stuff to live on till we can do the spell to take us back home.”
Kirk waved his hand. “That won’t be a problem. We can whip up whatever the computer thinks will be necessary for you.”
Buffy turned to Giles and grabbed him. “We’re going home! Home! Home! Home!” He returned her hug. Both of them were very near tears.
Rupert looked over her head to the Captain. “It’s not that we haven’t had a lovely time, but there really is no place like home.”
The Capitan of the Enterprise understood the sentiment perfectly, perhaps because he knew that he didn’t have a home. Not like these people meant, at any rate. He had lately realized that home and hearth and its simple pleasures were not likely to be on his horizon. He had lost so many people that he loved over the years that he saw his possible futures as a husband, a father, a settled man, slipping away. It only bothered him when he let it. He looked at the couple before him. “Treasure what you have together.” He nodded at them and left the room.
Spock continued to gaze at the disparate couple. “I shall continue to work on these calculations. I will inform you when all is ready.”
Buffy and Giles left the briefing room with a song in their hearts. They were so happy they were practically flying. They spent the next two days talking to all the people they had met and saying goodbye. Buffy got to show Giles the view from space. He didn’t like it.
Finally, everything was ready. They put on the funny 19th century clothing that the crew had created for them and accepted the money belt with several hundred dollars in gold and silver coins. They were ready. They walked into the transporter room with grins on their faces and joy in their hearts. However pleasant their stay had been, this place wasn’t home.
Stepping onto the transporter pads, they smiled into each other’s eyes as the mechanism began to beam them home.