A/N: This is my first attempt at writing a fan fiction! I'm not very well versed with how to format the text through this website, but I did my best. Planning to post chapters as I finish them. I hope someone gets at least some amusement out of this story. Didn't go into a lot of detail about the ship or crew just because this was just a fun amateur first attempt. Thanks for reading! Please comment if you like.

1

I'd been staring out at space for at least an hour, all the while pretending to be working on the engine efficiency report I needed to finish. My official title was Lieutenant, an upper level science officer position. The U.S.S. Enterprise had only been my home for a relatively short time, but in that time I'd risen to a fairly prominent positionthe in science department. However, I'd recently taken on a side project helping Chief Engineer Scott, or "Scotty" as he was called, fixing an engine output efficiency problem. It wasn't my main area of expertise, but I had known Scotty since coming aboard the Enterprise and we had hit it off as friends almost immediately. I always looked forward to listening to his stories about old Scotland while helping in Engineering, and occasionally while sharing drinks off-duty. Scotty valued the engineering of the Enterprise above even his oldest most treasured bottles of Scotch from home . I knew this because he consistently reminded me once he had a few drinks in him.

I tried once again to refocus my attention on the small lit up screen of the device in my hand. It was 01:00 hours and I could feel my tired eyelids becoming heavy.
I flopped backwards onto my soft bed and closed my eyes . I could just finish the report down in engineering tomorrow, and anyways I was sort of secretly looking for any palpable excuse to get away from my work in my department currently. The Federation had a couple decorated admirals aboard the Enterprise overseeing our visit to a nearby star system. We had all been briefed on the importance of the visit for scientific purposes, but the real pressure was coming down from the heads of Star Fleet to ensure the Enterprise didn't mess up. That wasn't really unusual for the Enterprise; it was one of the best ships in the fleet and we were often given high priority assignments. Subsequently however the Captain and higher up officers on board must have been feeling the heat, based on the high tension among the crew the past week.

Among my own department, there were rumors of several people having received reprimands for displeasing the admirals. Again, this was nothing new, however it meant more science officer involvement. Commander Spock, second in command on board the Enterprise, was technically the highest ranked science officer. As the Captain's second in command, he spent most of his on duty time on the bridge. Spock was half Vulcan and therefore extremely difficult to hold a conversation with unless it was scientifically substantive or at least relevant to our tasks at hand. Still, I had enjoyed several conversations with him on a more personal level, which was to say they didn't involve discussing efficiency of data collection on scientific studies. They were brief but insightful discussions of meditation, Vulcan disciplines and human and Vulcan ideological differences. Of course, it was impossible to tell if he actually got any enjoyment out of these conversations or if he was utterly indifferent to them as he was to most things. Even so, I valued any insight I could get from him and tried to respect his privacy and tendencies.

There was always an abundance of jokes floating around about Spock's lack of emotion or human tendencies. There was also a sub-category of the skeptics consisting of female crew members who were of the opinion that while Spock was extremely lacking in understanding human emotion, his superior intellect and physical strength made him fodder for romantic fantasizing. I could no longer even count the number of times I'd heard a comment along the lines of "he sure isn't very warm, but I wouldn't turn him away from my quarters if you know what I mean." It was to be expected, and mostly in light-hearted fun, but I had a lot of respect of the Commander and sometimes I found it more irritating than amusing.

Despite my appreciation for his level-headedness and Vulcan logic, I had generally been avoiding him recently in light of the added pressure of the admirals. I had been working under Spock since my arrival on the Enterprise and knew how efficient he could be; it got to a point where I just couldn't take another full shift or double shift of everyone complaining about how dry his personality was or how strict he had been about their performance. I had never personally found the Commander to be less than tactful in his delivery of performance queues, but then not everyone accepted his Vulcan half so easily.

My worries over the report were just beginning to fade away into much needed sleep when Scotty's accent blared out of the intercom in my room.

"Lieutenant, Chief Engineer Scott here," he said.

I sighed heavily to myself before hitting the button on the wall communicator.

"I'm here, Scotty," I managed to say groggily. "What can I do for you?"

There was a brief pause, then Scotty's voice, slightly hesitant.

"Well I know it's a god awful hour for this," he said, "but I wondered if you just might have a few minutes to go over some ideas for the engine output report. Beggin' your pardon if I woke ya', it's just that our deadline's been pushed forward again in light of the admirals being aboard. Cap'n wants the problem fixed by the end of tomorrow at the latest."

"You're killing me, Scotty," I said with a smirk on my face, knowing I was going to end up pulling an all-nighter. Scotty was too good a friend to disappoint.

"What if I were to offer an incentive," Scotty said, "a glass of that Scotch I've been tellin' you about?"

My smile grew slightly bigger at his offer.

"I suppose as long as we're off duty, a drink wouldn't hurt," I reasoned. "With the tension around here, it's the least we can do for ourselves."

"Aye, I've a feeling we'll all be feeling the pressure 'til this mission is 100 percent under wraps," Scotty says, the stress evident in his voice.

"Alright, I'll meet you up there," I said begrudgingly. "Let's try to keep this somewhat brief, I've gotta get some sleep if I'm gonna be working under my own department tomorrow."

"Aye," said Scotty, and I could hear the humor in his voice, "Commander Spock is sure to have everyone down there ready for an early shore leave."
I shook my head with a laugh and peeled myself off the bed.

"I'll see you in a few."