The answer to this one is very obvious to Jim. Of course it's Scotty, 'he who watches the heart of his ship.' He hasn't spent much time around the engineer since their last mission, although he has been reaching out a little lately, on his older counterpart's advice. It's been slow going, reconditioning himself to that part of the ship, always mindful of the presence of the warp core. But meeting Scotty in a more social setting... that's not as bad.

"Time is never ending," he mutters to himself as he heads out to meet the Scotsman, wondering what that might mean.