ILuvHawkeye: Thanks so much! I always enjoy reading your things.

Star Trek Freak: Thank you! I might write the filler stories, but seeing how my dedication to this story has sort of faded, I may not anymore. I am glad you like the idea though!

You know what? I am not even going to try to explain this delay. Most of this chapter was written over a year ago, but lacked a few concluding paragraphs. If anyone is still reading this, enjoy. This chapter is dedicated to ILuvHawkeye. I cannot give you the Trio back, but I can give you this.

Syvar suppressed a quick flash of triumph as the device fell off the tangle of wires and into his hands without making a sound. He carefully reached up and moved the mouse of the computer around. No alarm sounded. The Vulcan placed the alarm carefully on the floor behind the desk and sat in the computer chair. After a minute or two of acquainting himself with the mouse and keyboard, he began hacking into the EANC's security system.

As he worked, Syvar could not help wondering where Alan and Nevala were. Was Nevala being held somewhere else in the EANC? That could not be correct, because one of the male humans had said that this was the first time they had to deal with a living specimen. So assuming Nevala and Alan had got away, where had they gone? And why did they not take him? The Vulcan sighed. Being lost in the twenty-first century with a human and a Romulan was at the height of illogic, but nonetheless it was a fact.

A soft alert sound told Syvar he had succeeded in disabling the security system. Wasting no time, the Vulcan immediately got up and left his room. The hall he emerged in was deserted, and was merely a long hallway with doors on either side and a turbolift at one end. Syvar walked toward it and nearly slammed into it when the doors did not slide open. He hit a button on the side of the turbolift which looked like a manual override and was rewarded when the doors slid open. He entered and said, "Exit." The turbolift did not move.

Syvar sighed. Apparently all verbal commands on this lift were broken. He decided to assume that the numbers next to the buttons on this manual override were like the numbers of the decks of a starship and pressed the one labeled "6." With a quickly suppressed stab of annoyance, Syvar realized as soon as the turbolift started moving that he was going up. He pressed the button labeled "1" but the lift kept going up. The doors slid open at level six and Syvar just remembered in time to push the button instead of telling the doors to close.

At last Syvar got off at level one and saw the main entrance looming up ahead. Following the example of the last Vulcan who went back in time, Syvar tore a strip of clothing off one of his sleeves and tied it around his head, covering his ears. With that he walked outside and was faced with buildings. And cars. And humans. And a large square with a huge fountain right in front of him.

Syvar was lost downtown in some random city in North Carolina (judging by the license plates) in 2004. Sighing, Syvar began to look for someone who could give him more specific knowledge.

Nevala picked at her food, bored. Rachel and Stephanie were having a heated discussion about something called the Clayr's Glacier and Nathan and Alan were discussing some guy thing. The NASCAR shuttle races, if Nevala was not mistaken. Nevala was eavesdropping on the seventh grade girls seated directly behind her. They were discussing whether Belle Fleur or Watery Sunlight eye shadow would look better with the complexion of some girl named April Singer.

"So Nevala and Alan, what is it like living with the Marrows?" Stephanie asked with a grin, apparently tired of her Abhorsen trilogy conversation. "Do you know of any embarrassing habits I can blackmail Patrick with?" She grinned evilly.

"You Romulan…" Rachel muttered.

"Actually, no, Chai- Stephanie," Alan said. "Yesterday was boring since he and Gaither just played video games all afternoon so Nevala and I jumped on the trampoline and watched the Next Generation when it came on. Now that is the oddest thing I have ever seen in my life. It's like watching reality shows on the viewscreen… only it really is reality, not something grossly exaggerated!"

"Rachel, we have to show them The Undiscovered Country!" Stephanie said in excitement. "Can you guys come over after school? It's already Chick Flick Movie Night, but we can sacrifice that for you."

"What about me?" Nathan demanded.

"Awww, poor baby," Rachel said sarcastically. "You always laughed at us for having Chick Flick Movie Night twice a week. Now you know- never laugh at a girl for liking chick flicks!"

"Oh come on, Rachel," Stephanie sighed. "Yes, Nathan, it is at my house so you can come… if you promise never to laugh at us for enjoying sappy romances again." She and Rachel burst into laughter at the look on Nathan's face.

"Um… Mom? Admiral Qwi? Whoever you are? Alan and I cannot come. Mrs. Marrow has some errands downtown and wants to show us the city," Nevala said.

"Oh," Rachel said. "Maybe some other night… what is Saturday?"

"Valentine's Day," Stephanie said. "I hope Andrew remembers…"

"Valentine's Day?" Nevala asked.

"I forgot- you are Romulan," Rachel said, taking over for Stephanie. "Valentine's Day is the day of love, to celebrate couples. It always turns into this gigantic deal with a bunch of pressure though to do something special. Most of the time we hate it. Apparently Stephanie is happy though. She has an online boyfriend who is probably some 40-year-old who wants to kidnap her and kill her!"

"Rachel, relax. I know karate, I'll be fine," Stephanie said with the air of one who had heard this many times before and was tuning it out. "Get on Nathan's case about Alicia- his girlfriend," she added for Alan's and Nevala's sakes. "Come on, lunch is almost over. Do you want to skip choir and go with Rachel and me to Mr. Jackson's room?"

"Stephanie! I told you and Rachel not to skip choir!" Nathan admonished.

"Well, Mrs. Stencil likes you," Stephanie said patronizingly. "In my case, she is a bitch who utterly detests me." Rachel nodded fervently. Nathan looked slightly annoyed. Apparently this was a subject on which the Trio was divided.

"They should at least be allowed to determine whether or not they want to try choir," Nathan pointed out rationally. The Trekkie Trio turned to Alan and Nevala, expectant looks on their faces.

"Sure, why not?" Alan said at last. "I am fairly decent at singing."

"Lucky!" Stephanie grumbled. "I suck… Mrs. Stencil hates me… Nathan and Rachel close their eyes and moan…"

"We do not!" Rachel protested. "Come on, you are not that bad…" Still bickering, the five made their way across the parking lot and into the drama room. They were the first ones there. Nevala and Alan looked around in wonder. They had never seen a room quite like this. There was a piano in one corner, shelves full of ancient copies of National Geographic, whatever that was, oversized building blocks on the floor, and about sixty signs that all said, "IF IT IS NOT YOURS, DO NOT TOUCH IT!" Nathan went onstage, looking as though he was about to sing. Before he could though, five or six blonde girls, around eleven or twelve years of age, came in.

"That is Christi, Stephanie's little sister," Rachel told the time travelers.

"She does not like to talk about her either," Nevala whispered back. Rachel grinned evilly. They turned to watch the sixth graders, hiding grins as they shuddered upon setting eyes on Nathan and Stephanie. However, a moment later, their expressions completely changed upon setting eyes on Alan.

"Who is that hunk?" one of the girls asked, giggling. The others all nodded, though Christi elbowed the girl who had spoken as she nodded. Alan looked slightly taken aback.

"Hunk of what?" he asked cautiously, sending the girls into peals of laughter again.

"It means you are handsome in their eyes," Stephanie said bluntly. "Christi, take your posse and go drool over Mr. Breedhate or something. Alan is too young for you guys." All of the girls giggled again when Stephanie mentioned Mr. Breedhate, whoever he was. It was getting very annoying…

"I do not want to be anyone's boyfriend at this school!" Alan said, a slightly panicked look in his eyes.

"Welcome to the club," Rachel said dryly. "Where is Mrs. Stencil?" Luckily for the Trio and their kids, more students came in at that point and an ugly lady with white hair directed them into groups according to soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Rachel, Nathan, and Christi's posse were sopranos, Stephanie and Nevala were altos, and Alan was a tenor. Alan and Nevala decided to just listen as the kids started singing a jazz song called "Blue Moon."

"Blue moon/You saw me standing alone/Without a dream in my heart…"

"My second day and already I hate school," Alan groaned as he and Nevala followed Gaither into the Marrows' minivan. "Twenty-first century humans have a really weird style of teaching. And social interactions… I am not even going to go there."

"What's wrong?" Nevala asked with concern. "We do not have to know the academic junk anyway and a bunch of girls like you. Is that so horrible? I find school rather invigorating!" Alan just shook his head. She would get her eye-opener soon enough.

The time travelers sat in silence for the rest of the trip, the only sound in the back being the soft music of Gaither's Gameboy Advance. Nevala was staring out the window, fascinated by these primitive people. Everything was so much more exciting than in her mother's cold, sterile warbird. Alan stared at Patrick's physical science book, hoping he could get some sort of inspiration for sending himself and Nevala back to the future. When at last they pulled into a parking garage, neither had any more inspiration than before.

"Nevala, Alan, I want you two to stay with me. Gaither and Patrick, you can go to that comic book store and stay there. First, we have to get Sophia a haircut." They began walking downtown, passing a gigantic fountain in the middle of a huge square. There was a teenage boy sitting on the edge of it with a strip of cloth around his forehead who looked oddly familiar, but neither Alan nor Nevala went over for a closer look. Instead, they entered a tiny shop that merely said "Smartcuts" on a sign out front.

"Mrs. Marrow," Nevala said suddenly, "may I get a haircut too? Nothing can happen on Mum's warbird without her sanction, and I could never ask her for anything. Even I do not know how to disguise a haircut as something 'good for the Empire.' Please?"

"Well, if your mother will not allow it… but I suppose," she relented, remembering that she would be long dead by the time Toreth and Nevala met again, and even the Chairman of the Tal Shiar could not sue a dead woman.

"Wow," Alan said, perched on a chair beside Nevala a few minutes later. "You really are going all out to break every rule Chairman Toreth imposed on you." He sighed and shook his head. "Only her daughter would have the guts to defy someone as scary as your mom." Nevala laughed.

"Do not forget- I have my mom's genes. I can be quite scary too." She was kept from saying anymore when a young lady with immaculately styled blonde hair came over. Luckily for the time travelers, the only comment she made about Nevala's ears was, "You kids are way too obsessed with Lord of the Rings. Fake ears have not been in style since the sixties." She then proceeded to ask Nevala how she wanted her hair, and then cut it. Alan stared at her thoughtfully for a moment before speaking.

"You really don't plan to return to our time, do you?" he asked, not noticing the odd look the hairdresser gave him.

"Not at all," Nevala said. "I might not stay on Earth, but I definitely do not want to return to life on the RIW Kaleh. Just think about it, Alan! Humans have not yet explored space. The UFP does not even exist yet. I could flee to the Delta Quadrant and settle on a planet where no one has even heard of Chairman Toreth. Even in our time, only the Alpha and Beta Quadrants have been explored."

"Alright, look!" the hairdresser said suddenly. "You two are giving me a headache! Whatever game you are playing, I don't get it. I don't even own a computer. Just stay still so I can cut your hair evenly." Nevala lapsed into a sullen silence and Alan seized a magazine and started idly flipping through it, not really seeing the words. Nevala's plan spun through his head to the sound of scissors opening and closing.

Mr. Jackson passed the great fountain downtown for the third time, trying to find a place to park. Interestingly enough, the boy he had noticed the first two times was still sitting on the edge of the fountain, silently scanning everything with keen eyes. He did not look homeless, and Mr. Jackson figured he probably ought to ask if the youth was lost. He rolled down a window.

"Are you alright?" he asked. The boy looked up.

"Yes, sir," he answered courteously. "I merely became separated from my friends, Alan Pierce and Nevala, and we agreed to meet at the fountain if such an occurrence were to happen." Syvar calmly delivered the lie had thought of with a straight face. The names struck a chord with the math professor, who remembered the strange visitors his favorite students had introduced as their children.

"Are you Syvar?" he asked.

"Yes," the boy answered, shock quickly crossing his features before it was ruthlessly suppressed.

"Perhaps you had better come with me," Mr. Jackson told the Vulcan. "I met your companions and teach your father Nathan Black at my school. Perhaps I can help you find your way back to your century." Syvar raised an eyebrow, but got in the car, secretly relieved to have finally found the others and the potential of a way home.