"Duane, Diane - Tos - Spock's World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duane Diane)

Even as a passenger, another captain would be
"bumped" a grade up to commodore-partly out of
courtesy, partly to avoid discourtesy to the ship's
true master. It was real sovereignty, the only
kind Jim cared for, and he was glad to get rid of the
extra braid on his arms and settle into the happy
business of interacting, not with fleets, but with people.
Jim did that for the hour it took him to cover the
manned parts of the engineering hull, stopping last at
Engineering. He strolled in, and almost immediately began
to wish he hadn't. Pieces of the backup
warpdrive were all over the floor, or hovering on
placeholders, and Scotty was thundering around among his
engineering ensigns, shouting at them. Fortunately,
he was doing so in the tone of voice that Jim had
eventually learned meant everything was going all right, and
so he relaxed and stood there for a bit,
enjoying the spectacle. "Ye can't put a drive
together as if it was a bitty babbie's picture
puzzle, for pity's sake," Scotty was telling the
air with genial scorn, as junior crewmen
scuttled around him with calibrating instruments and
tools and engine parts, looking panic-stricken.
"There's got to be some system to't. You can't bring
up the multistate equivocators until the
magnetic bottle's on-line, and where's the
bottle then? Ye've had ten whole
minutes!-Afternoon, Captain," he added.
Jim smiled again. "Problems, Scotty?" he
said, not because he perceived any, but because he knew
Scotty expected that he would ask. "Ah no, just
a drill. What if these poor children have to reassemble
a warp engine by themselves some one of these days, with only
impulse running and a pack of Klingons howling
along behind 'em? They've got the brains for it: would
they be on the Enterprise if they didn't? Best
they learn how now. We'll be tidy again in twenty
disminutes. Or I'll know the reason why!"
Scotty added, at the top of his voice. The
scuttling got much more frantic. Apparently
Scotty's crew considered the chief engineer in what
Jim had heard them describe as "one of his
moods" to be slightly more dangerous to deal with than
mere Klingons.
Jim nodded. I might as well get out, he
thought; they look nervous enough without me watching as
well. "Officers" briefing at point seven,
Scotty," he said.
"Aye, I checked my terminal for the schedule a
while back." Scotty looked around him with