To Boldly Go Where No Zeppo Has Gone Before... by BarefootXO

Disclaimer: I do not own none of the fandoms that are delved into in this chapter...

~~

Xander groaned, looking about at the various ray-gun toting, pajama-wearing folks that were surrounding him, Oz and... and... whatever that thing was that had joined them on their little cosmic journey...

A bald man who was apparently in charge broke the increasingly uncomfortable silence. "I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise. What is the meaning of this intrusion?"

Xander grinned sheepishly. "Would you believe that my friend an I seem to be playing a multi-dimensional game of hot potato and that this seems to be our next stop until we drop the ball, as it were..."

The bald fellow did not appear amused by Xander's admittedly poor attempt at humour and turned to a blonde woman standing behind a console. "Lieutenant, take them to the brig and notify Starbase 336 that we have three stowaways aboard. Two of them appear to be human children and the third is a non-human of a species I haven't encountered before."

The blonde nodded professionally. "Aye, Sir." With that she twitched her ray-gun in the direction of an elevator. "That way please..." she calmly stated to her three charges.

Oz simply walked into the elevator, as did the creature, who seemed to be in awe of everything and anything around him. Xander shot a winning grin at their pretty keeper as he followed his two erstwhile companions and couldn't resist making another comment. "Would it help if I said we come in peace?"

The blonde, whatever her name was, seemed to derive some amusement from what he said, even if his companions were too humour-impaired to find it funny. "I'm sure it won't hurt, but it won't keep you out of the brig, I'm afraid..."

**

The journey to the brig had been informative. Xander had quickly learned that their funky creature companion was not a demon, was named Lexington and that the little guy had a real yen for technology, which definitely explained to Xander why the rather short gargoyle was always gawping at everything on an admittedly ultra-modern space ship. The pretty blonde woman was apparently Lieutenant Natasha Yar, Chief of Security. Xander had taken about five minutes to evaluate her and had mentally added her to the painfully long list of women who were more then able to beat the hell out of him.

**

Tasha Yar had spent six hours thus far debriefing the three stowaways and still had trouble believing that they weren’t yanking her chain.

The first claimed to be Alexander Lavelle Harris (call me Xander). He was adamant that he was from Sunnydale California, a town which did not exist in Starfleet records, and that he spent his days going to high school and his nights combating vampires of all things. As if she would ever believe such a story…

The second claimed to be Daniel Osbourne (call me Oz). His story was identical to Xander’s, right down to the date they both claimed it had been when they started their little journey. November 11th 1998. That would mean that they were over three centuries in the future!

Still, the weirdest case was their third stowaway. His name was apparently Lexington. He was originally from somewhere in Scotland but had recently been living in downtown Manhattan with his clan. Recently also being, for the record, about three or four centuries ago as far as he was concerned. Forget the fact that no species named the gargoyles existed in Starfleet records. Ignore the fact that no sentient non-human life had ever been recorded on earth prior to first contact with the Vulcans.

And then there was the glowing ball she had taken off of Xander. He claimed that the ball was some ‘wiggy multi-dimensional transport thing’ as he had so eloquently put it.

Tasha glared briefly at the three stowaways, who still sat in their cell irritatingly calm, as if this was just another day at the office for them. How dare they not tell her the truth? ‘Ah well,’ Tasha thought with a mental smirk as she saw a red-uniformed Klingon enter to relieve her. ‘Worf will get them to spill the truth. One good Klingon snarl should do it.’

Still it irked her that they wouldn’t just tell the truth. Perhaps that’s why she slammed the glowing ball against a console in frustration, despite Xander’s earlier warnings not to drop the ball.

**

Lieutenant Worf entered the brig just in time to see Tasha slam down the glowing ball and disappear in a flash of light, taking the three prisoners with her.

Worf slapped his communicator efficiently. “Worf to the Bridge. Captain, Lieutenant Yar and our stowaways just disappeared from the brig. I am unsure as to what means were used to abduct her…”

Picard grimaced. “All hands, battle stations. Red Alert. Security teams begin sweeping and find me my Security Chief…”

**

As the flash of light receded Xander shot a nasty glare at Tasha. “You just had to drop the ball, didn’t you?”

Tasha matched Xander’s glare with one of her own. “I’ll have you know I didn’t drop it. I slammed it against a console.”

Xander shook his head despairingly. “Women…” He then turned from his three companions to see three irritated-looking women before him. “Oh boy…”

~~

A/N: for those who haven’t guessed off the top, the three women are the Charmed Ones. You can choose which trio, of course… The Trek I chose was Star Trek TNG and the new traveler is Lieutenant Natasha Yar. I always thought it was a shame that she died so early on...

Jasper