“You don’t understand, detective,” Jim Kirk was saying, tugging against his handcuffs as Detective Stahl eyed him from the other side of the interrogation chamber. “I’ve got to find my friend.”
“Who is your friend?” asked Stahl, looking between him and the other man, Spock, who was staring at her as straight-faced as any MX would. Evidently the man has altered his appearance, pointing his ears and angling his eyebrows. She never really questioned other peoples’ face alteration surgery choices. However, this would prove inconvenient if the man had been listed in their criminal databases under some other identity – he did look all too familiar.
“His name’s Leonard McCoy,” said Jim. “We were sent here to stop him from doing something.”
“Is this ‘Leonard McCoy’ a criminal?” asked Stahl.
Jim laughed. “No, he’s not. He’s my chief medical officer. Best friend, too. He –” he cut off as he caught a glimpse of Detective Kennex and Dorian through the glass walls. “There he is! Bones!” he shouted, waving at the man who was heading for their room. Even Spock seemed to have been startled at this sudden realisation.
Detective Stahl shook her head. “No, Mr Kirk, that’s Detective Kennex, my colleague.”
“Yeah, and I’ve got some questions for you,” added Detective Kennex as he and Dorian entered the room.
“Bones, you’ve got to come back with us,” Jim snapped.
“Why don’t you give your mouth a rest, Mr Kirk? I’ve got questions for your friend,” retorted Kennex, not sparing Jim another look as he turned to Spock. “My partner Dorian’s recognised you, ‘Spock’, as the serial killer Gabriel Grayson who had a fondness for extracting the brains of his victims to sell on the black market. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Spock raised an eyebrow. “Detective, I can assure you that I am not this ‘Gabriel Grayson’ that you speak of. My name is Spock, and while my mother is indeed from the Grayson family on Earth, I am not the same as he.”
“That can be proven,” said Kennex, nodding at Stahl as Dorian took out a small black tube and instructed Spock to breathe into it. The man (?) then plugged his finger into it, and bright blue lights began flashing about his face.
“Woah, how come his face can do that?” asked Jim.
“Dorian is a DRN,” said Kennex.
“An android,” added Spock, as Dorian turned to the two detectives.
“He’s telling the truth. No trace of Gabriel Grayson’s DNA,” he said.
“Well, there’s that lead done with,” muttered Kennex sullenly.
Jim frowned. “What’s the date?” he asked suddenly.
“2048,” offered Dorian.
Jim’s brows furrowed deeper. “Something’s definitely changed,” he murmured. “The Federation’s not supposed to have androids in 2048.”
Spock considered this. “We are approximately two decades away from developing warp. The tricorder may be able to tell us exactly what Dr McCoy has done to corrupt the timeline.”
“But he wouldn’t have created all of this,” snapped Jim, gesturing to the room.
Stahl turned to Kennex and Dorian. “Do you understand any of this?” she asked.
“Can’t help you there,” agreed Kennex. “These kids must’ve spent too much time in some virtual reality. It’s even affected their sense of time.”
“Look,” Jim spoke up suddenly. “Do you guys have some spare robotic parts that Spock can use? We’d like to get home just as much as you’d like us to get out of here – and I’m not going to believe any of that ‘Detective Kennex’ stuff until I find Bones – and giving Spock the tools he needs is going to go a long way.”
“Buddy, I don’t think you understand how much we don’t trust you right now, even if your friend’s not a serial killer,” retorted Kennex.
Spock raised an eyebrow at that, before taking out his tricorder. “Do you recognise this?” he asked Dorian, who reached out to touch it, circuitry flashing.
“No,” said Dorian.
“Do you detect any threats on it?” asked Spock.
“No,” said Dorian.
“This is a device known as the tricorder,” said Spock. “I have used it to record the date of arrival of our chief medical officer in your time –”
“Oh, that’s brilliant, now we’ve got time travellers to deal with,” groused Kennex.
“That wasn’t already obvious?” asked Stahl.
“I thought they just bumped their heads too hard. Now I know.”
“But Dorian didn’t recognise the tech they have,” Stahl pointed out. “There may be truth to their story.”
“As I was saying,” Spock said in a louder voice, “if I can assemble a device to read the data from this tricorder, I will be able to locate when Dr McCoy shows up and what he does to corrupt the timeline.”
Stahl looked at Kennex, who closed his eyes and groaned before nodding.
“All right, all right,” he grumbled, pulling out his mobile. “I’ll call Rudy.”
~~
So I have the mad idea that this is all a couple years before the Eugenics Wars. Gabriel Grayson (what, no, this isn't a mini-crossover with Heroes, what are yout alking about) is meant to kidnap Stahl and study her genome. She is a Chrome, after all, which would inspire Grayson and whatever sinister organisation he's got with him to create Khan and the Augments and send humanity spiralling into the Eugenics Wars.
Bones will save Stahl (since he looks like Kennex, she'll probably not beat him up when he rescues her) and they'll probably take down Grayson, but then some other stuff will happen which will lead to, I dunno, Nigel Vaughn destroying the Earth with an army of XRNs before warp drive is achieved?
Yeah, Detective Stahl is Edith Keeler in this crossover, sorry.