"Have you heard about that guy? The one the captain was talking about this morning?"  Sulu leaned against the coffee counter, hugging his precious bean juice with both hands.

    "Ze 'Guest'?" Chekov asked, sipping his cup of hot tea "No, besides vhat he announced eesterday morning. I've been up to my nechk in nawigation charts all day."

    "Apparently...  he's a time traveler."

    This piqued the young ensign's interest, his eyes widening "From ze past or ze future?"

    "The past, I think."

    "Woah! I vonder vhat that must be like..."

    Sulu gained a look of mischief in his eyes"Well... why don't we ask him? Sounds more interesting than navigation charts to me."

    "I... Don't know Hikaru. Isn't he supposed to be in qvaritine? Sounds like a wrecipe for trouble to me." Chekov shook his head.

    "Oh, Come on, Pavel! Aren't you bored out of your mind? Besides, that time is practically over already" Sulu insisted.

    The russian furrowed his brow in internal conflict. On one hand, he could get in huge trouble for conversing with someone in quarantine without permission. On the other hand... he had a passion for spatio-temporal physics, and would love to learn as much as he could from the guest.

    "Well... I suppose... it would be fascinating... and I could use ze information I obtain to furzer my personal research..."

    "See? It's practically your job!"

    "Fine. You've conwinced me." Chekov sighed "But if we get in trouble, I am blaming you."

    For the third time today, Theseus heard the hiss that indicated his door had opened.

"You just fed me, didn't you? Or did I go crazy that fast?" he turned his head, expecting to see the kind looking man who'd brought him his meal. Instead, he saw two men, around his age but probably a bit younger, standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"Hello," One of them, the one with black hair, spoke awkwardly. "We're.. Uh..."

The other one, the younger one, spoke sporting a russian accent, which Theseus didn't have time to unpack at the moment "We are from engineering sciences. We are here to ask you a few questions."

Dark hair nodded in agreement. "Ask you a few questions, yes."

"Uh... Sure. Don't know how much help I'll be though." Theseus nodded uncertainty.

"We know you recently eexperienced a temporal displacement. What do you remember from the incident?" Russian boy asked.

"Well... I'm not really sure. I think... I was driving home from work? I usually work late, 'cuz I can't be bothered to get up early and grading papers doesn't wait for anyone. I think I wanted to go through the café drive through and get a double espresso... Then it gets all blurry from there. I think I remember a.. Uh a kind of light? All purple and white and green, then I woke up here confused out of my mind."

"Huh." the russian blinked a few times "Zhat is... intewresting."

"Yeah, not helpful at all, is it?"

"No, no, zhat was...  wery useful." Russian boy shook his head "Onto ze next qwestion, are you experiencing any-"

The door opened behind them, cutting  Chekov off.

"Chekov! Sulu! What the hell are you doing in here?" Dr McCoy was back, presumably for that daily checkup.

"Sir! We can explain." Sulu yelped.

"No, nope, forget it. Get out." McCoy pinched the bridge of his nose.

"But Sir-"

"Get. Out." McCoy pointed towards the door, Chekov and Sulu scurrying out, metaphorical tails between their legs.

"How's our guest, Bones?" Jim asked, sitting down next to him in the mess hall.

"Well, besides being bombarded by some of our junior officers... not bad?" Bones grumped "Physically he's doing amazing, I mean, frighteningly healthy. Mentally, about as good as someone can be when you've been displaced from all you know with little hope of returning."

"Well that's... good?" Kirk smiled, "How about you, buddy?"

"Oh, just magnificent. Understaffed, underappreciated, overworked, the usual."

"Don't say that, bones!" Jim slapped his hand on Bones' shoulder "I appreciate you. You've gotta know that by now."

Bones let out a harsh laugh "Despite what you might think, Jim, you're not the only person in the universe that matters."

"No I- I know that!" Jim laughed "You know you can talk to me, right? You're my friend, I'll listen. That's kinda the deal."

"Uh-huh." Bones stood up "I've some actual work to do, Jim. You should try it some time."