[Don't Worry, They Have Plenty of Tacos in Space] Who: Fred and Ushas What: Settling In Where: The Science Labs When: Shortly After Leaving Earth Rating: G
Winifred Burkle, who generally preferred to be called ‘Fred’, surveyed her laboratory like a monarch proudly looking out over her domain. It had been three years, give or take a few months, since she’d fallen through a portal and accidentally left her life in LA behind for a second time, and it hadn’t been an easy journey. (At least she’d found herself on Earth in the 23rd century, though, instead of a demon dimension in the 21st. It had been difficult to get used to the way things worked in Starfleet, but nobody had beaten her or forced her to wear a collar or called her a cow, and that was only ever a good thing.)
Only a handful people in the upper echelons of Starfleet command knew her true identity, and how she’d materialised in the middle of the mercifully deserted library in a swirl of light on an otherwise perfectly normal day. They’d questioned her intensely, but, after finally deciding that her story was legitimate, and after realising that there was no way to send her home again, they’d had no choice but to … help her. She’d been given a room in one of the dormitory blocks and a handful of credits and a low level job – nothing complicated, just enough to keep her occupied while she adjusted to her new world - in the science laboratories, and that had, in theory at least, been that.
At first, Fred had waited patiently for a rescue. She’d believed fervently (and, as the months passed, with an increasing air of desperation) that Angel would come for her. Wesley, Spike, Gunn, Lorne. Her best friends. Her heroes. Although there were no monsters to rescue her from – the few aliens she’d met on campus had been perfectly nice, actually, with very few tentacles – she’d known that it was only a matter of time before the gang showed up and took her back to LA.
She’d waited. And she’d waited. And she’d waited.
Despite the months that passed and the painstaking research that Fred carried out in her spare time, no portals developed and nobody managed to work out how she’d ended up here in the first place, let alone how she could leave again.
She waited a little longer, but, while she did so, Fred started to pay a bit more attention to her job. Within six months, she’d been promoted to the level of statistical analyst. By the time a year and a half had passed, she had six junior members of staff reporting to her and was spending considerably less time in the library pouring over books on interdimensional portals.
Three years later, and they’d finally posted her to a position on a Starfleet vessel. Fred Burkle – crazy little Fred, the mousey girl from Texas – was going into space.
She missed her friends from Angel Investigations, of course, but … well, she was a scientist. She couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t enjoying this, just a little. The things she’d seen, and the equipment she’d purchased gleefully using her expenses account, and the scientific papers she browsed in her spare time … it was as if she was living in a strange science fiction television series. Even if none of the aliens were green and nobody actually used flying saucers.
Part of her would always belong with Angel Investigations, but the other part of her knew that she had to live her life, wherever she was. The friends she’d now lost had taught her that in the first place, hadn’t they? She’d traded a cave for a life in Los Angeles, and there was no way she was going to move backwards and hide again. Angel would have hated that.
He’d probably have hated the Enterprise too, actually. The vampire had struggled with the answering machine, for goodness sake. Fred, on the other hand, absolutely adored the ship. It was no wonder that she was Starfleet’s newest flagship. Even the battle against Nero – which Fred, still in the laboratories on Earth at the time, had not been part of – hadn’t been able to take her shine away. She was a real beauty.
Home sweet home.
With a smile, Fred sat down behind her desk and wonder idly if the replicator hatches would be able to make tacos.