fandomtownies | Stark Industries, Tuesday

Scully had been meaning to do this off and on in-class for weeks, but kept getting distracted by robots, keyboards, and eyeballs. So visiting Spock at his workplace seemed like a better idea, over all. The Radio had mentioned where Spock worked, and she didn't really have anything else for today planned.

"Hello?" she called as she walked in, wandering around.

"Good afternoon," Spock said, raising his voice to carry to the front of the shop from his work station. "Can I be of assistance?"

"It's Scully, from science class. I'm mostly just curious," Scully admitted, following the sound of his voice toward his work station. "I'd heard about this place on the Radio, and wanted to see it." She reached his station and gave him a small reserved smile. "It looks like advanced robotics?"

"Hello, Scully." Had Spock not been a Vulcan, he might have laughed. "Advanced for this time period, yes," he said.

Scully's nose would have been twitching if it were food; as it was, she just looked very very interested. "Do you mind if I watch for a little while?" She shot him a look. "And I owe you an apology. About not believing you a few weeks ago. Long overdue, I admit, but... still owed."

"You are welcome to," Spock said as he tinkered with a part, and then, "Not at all. Earth is, after all, still pre-first contact at this time, and I am still not certain why I am here instead of 2250. Skepticism was a logical response."

Scully relaxed, relieved that he hadn't taken offense, and dragged a stool over to watch the delicate work he was doing. "So you didn't expect to be in this year either? It's so strange. It might be completely random, of course. I've been trying to discern a pattern in incidence of time travel, but so far I haven't found a common denominator."

Vulcans weren't really good at taking offense. Unless, of course, they deemed it logical. They were a little perverse that way. "No, I did not," he confirmed. "One thing I have noted, and I may not be entirely correct: more students seem to be from the relatively near past and far future than the near future. I am not sure what the significance of that, if any, may be."

Scully considered that, running over those she'd met in her head, and said, "I've met several from the recent past. And more from places that don't strictly line up with Earth's chronology at all, with the beliefs in magic which we discussed before."

It was like a mini-symposium. With tiny powered screwdrivers. Scully was staying back out of Spock's line of sight, but she wished for a pair of magnifying goggles so she could follow what he was doing.

"Yes, it is difficult to categorize those who have completely different chronologies," Spock agreed. "It is problematic, especially as they do seem to be Human, meaning their being from other planets that have not made contact and adapted Terran-style calendars yet is unlikely in the extreme."

Scully followed that carefully, and propped her chin on her hands. "How many other species has Earth made contact with, in your time? Are there any over-riding conflicts between planets?" And because she'd been wondering: "And what are you working on, here?"

"In my time period, Earth is a founding member of the United Federation of Planets, which is composed of ~~handwavey~~ member worlds," Spock said. "Some, of course, are colonies. And, as you said," Spock said, gesturing to his project. "Advanced robotics." The corner of his mouth almost, almost turned up.

Scully was going to try to out-stoic a Vulcan. Not that she had a prayer of doing so (not that she knew that). But still. She had to try. She quirked a smile back. She failed at making it smaller, because Spock's reaction was definitely amusing. "Amazing. The number in your federation." She did not roll her eyes. Mostly. "I might actually understand the robotics, you know. Even though I'm not from the 23rd century." She paused, then reluctantly admitted, "In theory."

"It is a significant fraction of known interstellar civilizations, to be sure," he agreed. Spock found that unlikely, but launched into a ~~handwavey, because the player is an English major, very technical, because this is Spock~~ explanation of his project.

Scully asked a few more ~~handwavey, because robots might as well be Transformers~~ technical questions, then said, "The other reason I wanted to stop by was to see if you were interested in being included in the Science... non-club, that Claudia and Peter and I have been discussing off and on."

Spock answered in ~~handwavey~~ comprehensive terms, then said, "I would certainly be interested in such an endeavor."

"I'm not certain we want to apply to make it an official club," Scully clarified. "Oversight might be... problematic."

Translation: none of them dealt well with adult direction. Or felt the need to gain teacher assistance yet.

"I don't believe most of the clubs meet in the summer, at any rate," Spock said. "Efforts to incorporate would have to wait until fall."

"Good to know." Scully gave the little robot-spider-insect-incredibly-complex thing one last look, and slid off her perch. "Then I'll contact you the next time we have a project in the works. By text-message, if you have a phone."

"I can give you my communicator code," Spock said. "It functions in much the same manner."

Oooooo. Scully's eyebrows went up again, and she said, "Certainly. Oh, and you should have mine," she added, fishing her new phone out of her pocket. "...is there any chance I could examine that?"

"No, I cannot allow that," Spock said, sounding, if anything, faintly apologetic. And here he'd thought he was safe to take it out of his pocket now that Mr. Stark was gone. "I will, however, certainly take your phone number."

Scully looked surprised, then picked up a sticky-note to write down her number. "Oh. Of course. Paradox." She'd gotten out of the habit of thinking of that, then slowly handed over the piece of paper to Spock. "...do you really think our present is your past? That your world could be our future?"

She'd really like to believe that.

"I do not know," Spock admitted, "but I see no logical reason to behave as if it is not." He took the note from Scully, then paused in his work to write down his own number and hand it over to her.

She was going to hang onto that idea, and the hope of it. And all the other worlds where people were surviving past any alien invasion yet to come. Try to believe.

"Thank you. And I'll see you in class, if I don't see you earlier," Scully said. "Have a good day working on your-- advanced robotics."

Stark Industries, Tuesday

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