Disclaimer: This is for my amusement and do not own or make money from Star Trek.

Chapter One: Mattie Hanson Meet Deep Space

"That's really big," Mattie Hanson said under her breath as she looked out the window of the shuttle she was presently traveling in. No wonder everybody kept going on about the Enterprise. It was massive, bright and shiny. And supposedly Mattie's new home.

She leaned forward as far as she could to continue gazing out the window as they traveled further into space. Around her other officers and newly minted ensigns either murmured among one another or looked bored. Maybe going up into space, or onto the Enterprise, was normal to everybody else, but it was all new to Mattie.

Not that she hadn't been working for Starfleet. She'd been on a special engineering team for the past four years.

Granted, under no circumstance was anybody ever to know about that special engineering team or anything else that had likewise been deemed classified by Starfleet Intelligence. Subsequently, quite a lot of the work that Mattie had done in the past years had been buried deep in the ground.

Leaning back into her seat, Mattie took a deep big breath. She was doing this because Rose had asked her. Everything would be okay, despite the alarming amount of germs and the high risk of injury. But, yes, everything would be okay.

Mattie had no idea what to really do but she followed the other crewmembers as they disembarked the shuttle. Finding herself on the Enterprise, she quickly walked at a fast pace as everybody else seemed to be walking with determination.

Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott. That's who she needed to find. He would be her superior and he could tell her where she needed to be. As she walked, she recited in her head what she would say when she found the man.

Hello, my name is Mattie Hanson. I fix things, and I believe that I have been assigned to work on your warp core. No why would she say she fixes things? She did, of course, but that's not how you go about introducing yourself. Hello, my name is Mattie Hanson. I'm your new warp core specialist. Yes, that sounded professional enough.

Perhaps it was the fact that deep down she truly was an engineer, her feet easily took her down to Engineering despite never being on the ship before. Steam billowed and Mattie ducked and dodged various redshirts that were running around before Mattie suddenly heard a strong Scottish accent.

Rose had said that the man was Scottish, so Mattie figured she'd finally found the right place. Sure enough, the shirt had the right rank and by the furious glint in the man's eye, she could easily assume that he was the man that cared for the ship.

"Purrin like a kitten," the man spoke into a communicator device.

Mattie had to quickly step out of the way to avoid a hurried looking ensign and when the man came back into view he had stopped speaking and was looking mighty proud at his "kitten."

"Can I help you?" his attention snapped to her as she stood awkwardly.

She jumped at the sudden attention. "I'm Mattie Hanson and I fix things," she said much too loudly and much too oddly. He raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I've been assigned to help with the warp core."

"Ah," he seemed to understand. "Ensign Hanson, right." He was cut off from saying anything else when a black female appeared next to his shoulder.

"Chandler's threatening to take the artificial gravity off-line again."

"Damn bastard," Scotty completely forgot about Mattie. "Why'd I even bother to bring him back on board?"

"Because when he's not being an ass, he's the best orbital engineer that we've got," the woman deadpanned.

"Aye," Scotty waved around a rather large wrench as he started to mumble to himself. Mattie thought she heard the distinct sound of the words, "but he's a pain in the arse," as he walked away.

She thought she had been left alone before she felt something beside her. Looking down she spotted a short alien, with greenish skin that was folded and wrinkled, and big shiny black eyes. He blinked.

"Keenser," she greeted before blinking herself. He hadn't said anything to her.

He stared at her before walking around the antimatter chamber. She remained a pace behind him as she walked around.

Mattie began to nod. "Okay," she took in the facilities and the antimatter reaction chamber. "I can work with this."

Keenser said nothing, but he found her strangely amusing. He decided he was going to like her.

She stopped nodding before slowly looking down at the alien. "Um, could you tell me where Sickbay is at?"

He tilted his head at her.

She opened her mouth to say something, only to choke over no words, before shutting it. He turned and walked away.

They went up several decks and rounded long corridors, all the while feeling the different types of buzzes along the different sections of the ship before they finally ended up outside the entrance to the medical bay. It was so well lit and bright that an odd comfort seemed to roll over her at just the sight of the hospital.

To Mattie Hanson, hospitals always felt like safe places. Others would disagree, but to Mattie they were a place where people wanted to help others. Plus they had all the medical treatments that a girl could need. And there was always a low-lying fear that Mattie thought she was sick.

"Thanks," she told Keenser. He blinked, not sure why she had wanted to go there, before heading back to Engineering.

As she moved forward a voice cut across the PA, a Captain James T. Kirk welcoming his crew aboard a five-year space mission.

Five years, Mattie thought to herself. She'd still be under thirty when it would all be said and done, but that was still a long time nonetheless.

Sickbay was alive and busy despite the mission not quite kicking off yet. She took a few more steps into the room. Still, nobody noticed her yet. She slipped onto a bed.

It was better to be here. It was safer. This was a new ship (to her) after all and it would probably be better if she was here when they entered warp speed.

"Dammit," a strong Southern voice yelled. The next moment a man walked out of an office. "Somebody give me a tricorder."

"You know," another man stepped beside him. "I swear we had more, but what would you know, we're all out."

"M'Benga," the man growled. "Give me back my damn tricorder."

"I just told you," M'Benga feigned innocence. "We don't have anymore."

The Southerner swore under his breath while Mattie looked on in concern at his anger.

"Giles," he yelled at a nurse. "Give me your tricorder."

The man looked down at the device in his hand. "But, sir, I need it."

Another expletive filled the room.

"Oh, for fuck sakes," another nurse rolled her eyes. "M'Benga hid them on the top shelf in the supply closet."

Still swearing the doctor marched to a closet and began furiously rummaging around.

"Spoilsport," M'Benga said with a smile on his face. Whistling to himself he went back to his PADD.

Watching the interactions of the Sickbay Mattie didn't feel anything. Momentarily she zoned out when her body suddenly jerked forward, the top half of her body falling fast as her eyes caught sight of the approaching floor. Her hand tried to catch something, the bed, when she smacked into the ground. Around her everybody else found themselves in a similar state of disarray.

"What the hell?" the Southern doctor struggled to catch himself from falling. He straightened upright as Mattie stood up on shaky legs. He honed in on her bloody hand. Striding forward, while his demeanor was fierce and angry, the hand that went to cup hers was soft and gentle. He held it up for inspection. "Sit back down."

Mattie wanted to snap back that that's what she'd been planning on doing when she decided that there was no point even saying anything to him.

"I swear if that idiot left the parking break on again," he muttered to himself. Mattie feared for the kid that he spoke of. Wrapping her hand he finally looked up and caught sight of her navy eyes. "Well?"

Her brow furrowed.

"What were you here for in the first place?"

She found that her mouth opened but she didn't know what to say.

He looked at her with impatience. "Damn redshirts."

Not liking his comment she pulled back her hand. This time it was his mouth that snapped open and shut as he narrowed his eyes at her. He tugged her hand back to finish.

"Let me do my damn job," he growled at her. "And tell me what the hell you were doing here anyway."

He let her have her hand back and he reached for his tricorder, scanning and assessing her medical state.

"What about infections?"

He stopped scanning as his brow furrowed. "What?"

She glanced at her hand. "What about infections?"

"I cleaned it," he argued. "So just don't do anything stupid and it'll be fine."

She looked like she wanted to say something else, but he didn't let her. "Why are you here?" he asked again only to be interrupted by his communicator.

"Bones," a voice chirped. Bones listened but didn't take his eyes off her as if he didn't want to let his prey out of his sight. "Need you on the Bridge."

"Acknowledged." He closed the device only for it to beep again. "What?"

"Are you coming?" the same voice asked again.

"Oh, yes," he responded sarcastically. "I'm just runnin' up there right now."

This time the line went silent for good.

"Giles," he shouted over his shoulder. "Come take care of her. The captain's being stupid."

Mattie was surprised at his casual remark of the captain. He fled from Sickbay as another man walked forward to take his place.

"Alright?" the man asked him. From the get go he came across as kinder as he picked up a PADD and focused on Mattie. She nodded. "Well, that's been sorted, but what else did you need help with?"

"I," Mattie hesitated as she looked down in shame. He was calm as he waited for her to speak. "I came because I thought it would be safer while we started warp."

He didn't say anything at first so she felt like she had to continue speaking.

"65 percent of accidents occurring at warp speeds occur within the first fifteen minutes of entering warp."

"Right," the man let his PADD hang in one hand. "Well, the good news is that you were right…" Instead of looking at her strangely though or getting angry he surprised her by sitting down on the biobed. "But we're going to have to do something about your anxiety."

"I don't have anxiety," she corrected him. "I'm just a hypochondriac."

"Right," he said the word again slowly. "Is that in your file?" he picked up his PADD again and began to type.

"Mattie Hanson," she told him as he clicked at the screen.

He came across a suspiciously small medical file but didn't say anything about it. "I'm just going to make a note of that, then." She watched him type something in. "It's okay, to be concerned for your health," he told her. "But you know on a ship like this, and with a mission like ours, it's not going to be okay to always come in here anytime we go into warp."

"I can build up a tolerance," she promised quickly. He hesitated before nodding.

"Lieutenant junior grade Hanson," a voice on the PA startled her. "To Engineering."

"Oh, shit, that's me."

Nurse Giles stood up and watched her leave.

"Who was that?" M'Benga stood next to him as he took a bite of an apple.

"That," Giles told him. "Is a hypochondriac."

M'Benga smiled wide. "Nice," he nodded his head in delight as he kept eating. "This is going to be a great mission."

Giles raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" the doctor defended himself. "This is going to drive McCoy insane. It's going to be awesome."

Giles rolled his eyes and went back to work at the same time that Mattie ran down to Engineering, terrified that she was already in trouble.

The way to Engineering was already ingrained in her. She rounded the long corridor, hopped into the turbolift, got out and sprinted down a short path before she came to a skidding halt in front of the young black woman she had seen earlier.

"Ensign Hanson?" the woman had her hands on her hips. Mattie nodded. "Never run off when you're on shift."

Mattie nodded again.

"If there's anything the Academy should have taught it was at least that," the girl snapped again in a disapproving tone of voice. "And I don't give a damn about any of your excuses. That's the first thing I'll teach you."

The woman turned around and began to walk.

"I'm Lieutenant Kyla Rixson," the woman told her. "I'm the Chief Assistant Engineer, under Mr. Scott, and I'll tell you now, that while I don't suggest pissing me off, I really don't suggest pissing him off. So don't," she spun around on her heels. "Ever run off again when you're on shift. I'm never going to be in the mood to track you down when the Ship's been hit by whatever bad guy Kirk has pissed off. Do you understand?"

Mattie nodded.

Rixson sighed and turned back around. "So, you're in Section B. You're specialty is warp?"

"Yes," Mattie finally used a word.

"Right, well Lieutenant Brown is head of your section. Of course, as you probably know there's a crap ton of things that need to be done to keep a ship running and we're all going to be called upon to do so. While your immediate attention is to be making sure that our warp drive is alive and healthy, don't be surprised at all your other duties. Hey, where are you coming from anyway?"

Mattie wasn't sure what to say and at Rixson's, do you know how to speak, facial expression conveyed her distaste for the new recruit.

"What other ships have you been on?" Rixson spoke slowly.

"I've not been," Mattie admitted. At the Lieutenant's questioning look she hurried to go on. "I was actually on an engineering team. We tested prototype's."

"Prototypes?" Rixson repeated.

"Yeah, like," Mattie waved her arms up as if to motion to the entire Enterprise. "Testing out models and technology for what would be the next Enterprise."

She found it hard to interpret what Rixson thought about that, but she stuck to the cover story which was kinda sorta true with a large amount of admissions about the actual prototypes they had really been working on.

Rixson's shoulders relaxed as she sighed again. One second later they were tense again as if that was the natural state of her shoulder muscles. "Alright, so you're pretty green with the whole living and working on a ship thing. I'll give you a pass, then for running off this morning, but don't think I'm full of forgiveness."

Mattie stared at the hard look on the woman's face and nodded slowly. "I won't. And I won't give you any excuses ever either."

A ghost of a smile graced Rixson's face before she forced a blank expression on it again. She nodded solemnly and started to walk away.

"Remember, Lieutenant Brown, if you have any questions." It was her way of giving kind advice to the newbie.

Five hours later and Mattie's shift still hadn't ended, but she had a headache that she thought would end her.

Despite asking about Lieutenant Brown, the other engineer, was nowhere around so she ended up relying heavily on Keenser. While the short alien was nice enough Mattie felt this nagging feeling like she should just be better than she was. Like everything she was doing just wasn't working out right. Maybe it was the red uniform that was too itchy and the thick-soled boots that just seemed to weigh her down that made her feel different from usual. She'd never really had to wear a regulation uniform before. There had been some perks to being on a specially recruited team. It could have possibly also been that despite the hundreds of other redshirts, Mattie couldn't help but feel like she stuck out like a sore thumb. She'd had trouble locating supplies until a friendly young man, in broken English, had been nice enough to point out that she was not going to find a wrench in a food supply closet. Then of course because she'd taken too much time finding a damn wrench she hadn't been able to quickly change out a battery and one of her fellow Section B mates had narrowed their eyes at her rather nastily.

She knew that a lot of her insecurity came from just that, being insecure at having to find her place onboard a massive space ship that was known for having the brightest minds assigned to it.

But it was not all in her head, not when she'd accidently messed up the lighting in Main Engineering because she'd been so nervous. What she found to be the worst was that she most definitely knew all there was to know about engineering. She didn't think that highly of herself, but she knew that she loved what she did for a living and she was always happy to fix things. She could just never remember a time when she'd sucked so badly at doing it.

"Um," Mattie stood up straight as she watched a woman breeze by her. She didn't just feel like she was in the way, she knew she was in the way. She scooted over a few steps so that she was closer to a glossy wall.

"What the hell are you doing?" a posh London accent demanded to know. Stern green eyes looked down at the wrench in Mattie's hand.

"Oh," Mattie suddenly stopped using the wrench to itch along her thigh. Her cheeks felt hot as she blushed. "Sorry, it's just itchy. The skirt is really itchy. And not good for bending down and working either."

A perfectly sculpted eyebrow was raised. In clear disdain, the woman offered Mattie a hand to shake. "I'm Abigail Brown, and I hear you are dropping the average intelligence level of Section B."

Over her lifetime Mattie Hanson had had a lot of insults hurled at her. She liked to say she had developed a thick skin, starting from her childhood that consisted of an absent father, a mother that was all but physically absent, and a solidly working class neighborhood in, an unfortunately, stereotypical poor Northern England town. In this instance though she felt her skin prickle.

Abigail Brown didn't give her a chance to defend herself. "There's a time and a place for showing skin." She once again pointedly looked at the skirt Mattie was wearing. "You should have been issued trousers as well."

"Trousers would be great," Mattie exclaimed nervously.

Abigail looked at her like she was stupid. "If you weren't issued them I'd talk to Supply Command. Somebody should be able to get you sorted. Now about this bumbling about, we can't have that. Not in my section please."

Apparently, Abigail took her job as section head very seriously. Or at least very seriously when anything made her look bad.

"I hear that you've been specially assigned by Mr. Scott." Now she looked at Mattie with pure hatred. "As a warp specialist. If your performance is anything to go by today, I'd say good luck with that."

Mattie's cheeks grew even redder.

"I'm not about to pick up any of your slack," Abigail informed her. "But let's keep the casualties to a minimum please and stick to the safe zones. I'm not about to have you work on the warp core when you can't even figure out how the lighting works down here."

Mattie felt numb. At least numb, was better than overwhelming sadness or anger at her assumed stupidity.

"Are we clear?" Abigail's eyebrow was raised again. Mattie nodded stiffly. "Good. Oh, for fuck sakes would you stop fidgeting with your skirt."

Abigail's high ponytail swished around as the woman walked away. Mattie felt hot, yet cold. Yes, cold. As in empty and alone.

She took a few steps forward and eventually ended up sliding into a chair next to Keenser. The alien, of course, didn't say anything, but he sympathetically tilted his head to the side.

"She like that a lot?"

He blinked.

"That's just great."

They sat side by side, his presence a small comfort to her.

"You know," she said in a small voice almost like she was afraid to speak. "I'm really good at my job. I'm just a little nervous is all. It'll get better though."

For the love of God, please let it get better she thought. Absentmindedly she tugged at a necklace that had recently been given to her. It had been from all her friends, but Oscar had been the one to give it to her as he'd been the only one in San Francisco before she'd left.

It was just a simple design of a boat with the sail up. What made it special was the waves that portrayed the ship as sailing in the water.

"Rise above and don't let anybody get you down," Oscar had said.

Because you'll just sink.

"There's no point trying to fit in?" Mattie asked Keenser as she rubbed the charm. He shook his head. "What am I doing in a skirt then?"

Mattie stood up and ran out of the room. She'd looked up her room assignment earlier and while it was several decks above Engineering and the fact that Rixson would most likely kill her if she got caught running off again didn't deter Mattie. She made it to her room in record time and opened the door for the first time.

It was small. Very small. Yet, it had an even tinier en suite bathroom and a nice wide window to look out into deep space. Most importantly though it was her very own space which made it her own home. And she hadn't had many of those.

She tore through the one small black bag that she'd packed and that had been transported to her quarters earlier. She dug through the few belongings she'd brought, promising herself that she would truly unpack later that night, before pulling out the item she really wanted.

Overalls.

She didn't have time to search around for regulation trousers when her first shift was already a disaster. Instead she tugged off her skirt, kept on her red shirt, and pulled on the black overalls, fixing the straps and tugging her thick boots on. They might be heavy, but dammit they would be good for stomping around.

She threw her long blonde hair in a messy bun as she ran back to her station. She skipped the turbolift which seemed dreadfully slow and went down an endless amount of stairs instead.

The Enterprise might be a ship, but so was Mattie Hanson and nobody was going to sink her.

Her hand gripped the handrail as the Enterprise hit turbulence. The ship seemed to be slowing down making her go even faster. She hurtled down the final few steps and ran past Keenser towards the warp core.

"What's going on?" she asked him as he scurried to catch up.

"What's going on?" somebody else asked Scotty.

Scotty held his hands up as he struggled with words. In a way it made her feel better. She wasn't the only one who had difficulty with words at times.

Rixson was beside Scotty as they tried to explain what was going on.

"Scotty," the man waved a hand to stop him. "Laymen's terms."

Scotty took a deep breath. "It's not the warp core, luckily, but Capt'n, it could be the nacelle and that could be jus' as bad."

"What do we have to do?" Captain James T. Kirk.

"We'd best dock," Scotty mused unhappily. What the hell had been the point of weeks worth of diagnostic tests if they hadn't caught this before beginning their mission. "No, point in gettin too far out just ta have dodgy coils."

"We can't go back," there was a dangerous edge to the captain's voice.

"I'm not especially happy either, Capt'n," Scotty defended. He glanced at Rixson as if he was asking for help.

"We can keep the one nacelle in check," Rixson said. "That'd get us there, just half the speed. It all has to do with the wiring, sir."

"How long will this be an issue?" Kirk asked before he looked down in alarm.

Mattie, on her hands and knees, moved the captain's foot off so that she could pop out the mesh flooring. She might have heard a strangled gasp of air coming from Scotty, but she ignored it. Not looking up once and almost as if she was on auto drive she rerouted the wiring, replaced the flooring, and stood up only to walk over to a power grid.

She didn't even realize that around her others were holding their breath as they watched her. She took out a wrench that had been in the back pocket of her overalls and with all her might whacked the grid. People weren't just holding their breaths, they started to shrink back as they looked at Scotty and Kirk who were too stunned to react to the girl.

She walked around the antimatter chamber just to double check that it wasn't the power transfer conduits before she found the mainboard switch that actually controlled the warp drive. She turned it off. Then she turned it back on.

Slowly, but most importantly, steadily the Enterprise's warp speed picked up until they were back at the same pace that they'd been at.

Mattie tucked her wrench back into her pocket and stepped back out and around the round chamber as she realized just how important her audience had been.

The first person that she saw was the doctor with a rough bedside manner. His arms were crossed against his chest, and his facial expression seemed to say, Are you serious?

Mattie didn't have time to worry about him though as she caught sight of Scotty. She hadn't even really had a conversation with him before. Was he mad? That could possibly be his angry face.

She cleared her throat and awkwardly pointed back to where the Captain's foot had been.

"Shoddy wiring," she announced.

Nine months and the Enterprise was almost back to its usual self.

That was, of course, if the ole gal would ever go back to being her usual self. Certainly, the crew after John Harrison would never be the same. But Montgomery Scott and his crew of Engineers had done everything in their power to get the ship looking and operating alright once more.

The Scotsman took a step back in the San Francisco shipyard and craned his neck upward to admire the beauty. He scratched the back of his neck, which was red after months of hard labor and stress before the small sound of crunching footsteps made him suddenly turn around.

"Hiya," he said amiably despite never seeing the woman in front of him before.

"Hi," she replied back. She kept walking until she was just a foot away from him. "Scott, right?"

"Aye," he nodded.

"Hi," she said again. "I'm Rose Cavalier."

Scotty stuck out a hand despite not really knowing what was going on. "Nice to meet ya."

"We've actually already met," she shook his hand.

He raised an eyebrow while simultaneously looking apologetically. "Ah, well I'm sorry to say, lass, that I uh,"

"It's okay," she shook her head with a small smile. "It was very briefly. Uh, right before you lost Admiral Archer's beagle."

Scotty's eyes grew wide and it was almost as if he was nervous suddenly. "Aye, well, you know the beagle really just wanted to do some travelin'. Told me himself."

"I always suspected the dog was just in it for the journey," Rose joked along. She jerked her chin towards the Enterprise. "You've got her looking nice again."

"Thank ya," he said proudly before he finally realized that he did know her. "Ah, you're Rose Cavalier! You were on the team tha' originally created her."

She smiled softly. "Yeah, and it's quite nice to see a ship do some good around here."

It was Scotty's turn to smile softly. "Well, what can I do for ya?"

She was quiet for a moment as she stared at the Enterprise before turning to look the Chief Engineer square in the eye. "I want you to hire a Junior Lieutenant, Mattie Hanson."

"Never heard of her," he admitted. "And I think we've pretty much got a full crew now."

Rose didn't seem to give a shit about that. "She's a warp core specialist."

Scotty tilted his head at that. It was reasonable to consider another warp core specialist. "And?"

Once again Rose took her time speaking. "Mr. Scott," she began slowly. "Have you ever met somebody that you don't even understand how they get the world?"

He did. James T. Kirk was the captain of the Enterprise after all.

"I'm asking you to give Mattie a chance," Rose leveled with the Scot. "Recently the program that I was directing ended. Mattie Hanson deserves a good assignment. And I've been on that ship," she motioned to the Enterprise. "And if anybody also deserves a good home, then it's Mattie."

"I can appreciate the sentiment," Scotty said. "And the recommendation, but if I'm goin' take on another engineer I need ta be sure tha' they're up for the task."

She nodded. "If you ever want to get the Enterprise up to and over Warp 10," she stated coolly. "Then you'll want Mattie Hanson."

Scotty's first instinct to laugh, but when he saw how serious she was he froze with his mouth open. Before he could say anything else the woman turned and began to walk away. She stopped once though to speak over her shoulder.

"Ambassador Spock is willing to be a reference if that makes any difference."

"Scotty, who is that?" Kirk asked as the crowd that had watched the girl dissipated. The girl herself had blushed under everybody's eyes and turned on her heels quickly and walked away.

"Uh, that," several funny expressions flashed across his face as he tried to explain. "Is Lieutenant junior grade Mattie Hanson." He paused a beat. "She comes very highly recommended."

Hi! I do just want to mention that I am in no way an engineer and have very little knowledge of how to actually be one. I have made Mattie's ability almost whimsical, in a way that she doesn't even understand how much of a genius she is. Therefore I apologize if something is blatantly wrong and blame my liberal arts background.

Thank you very much for reading!