Universal Imagines

La’an quickly got changed into a new uniform after she’d read the message. She’d tried to trace it but the messenger had been prepared and had taken steps to hide the location of where the message had come from. Truthfully, La’an didn’t want to think about it anymore given its implications. Perhaps it meant the assailant would come after her next, or intended to attack others of the crew, or perhaps it was simply psychological warfare designed to throw her off balance.

La’an brushed all those thoughts from her head as she met up with Spock at the crew lounge. Security had blocked off the room and the corridors for her and Spock to investigate and the crew present at the time of the attack were all secured and being questioned by security.

“Lieutenant.” Spock asked in a low voice. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine Spock.” La’an lied putting up her professional mask as they both walked together into the crew lounge and beyond it into the maintenance tunnels where Jenna had been attacked. Power had been restored to the deck so most of the lights in the tunnel were on though some still flickered.

The pair stopped right in front of the formally busted relay, now recently repaired. “This was the relay LT Mitchell was assigned to repair by Hemmer.”

La’an nodded silently as she observed the relay. Her eyes stopped at a dried blood stain just at eye level. “And the location where Jenna was first attacked.”

“Indeed.” Spock replied. “Though she was found deeper down the hallway by LT Kirk. Why do you suppose that would be if she was attacked here.”

“Maybe she tried to escape, and her attacker caught up to her deeper down the hallway.” La’an theorized.

“Would she not have run in the direction of the crew lounge then?” Spock countered causing La’an to stop and think.

She hated to admit that Spock was right. Jenna had run deeper into the corridors and away from help. The smart choice should’ve to run in the nearest direction of help. La’an could see Jenna having panicked and just run off without thinking but it still didn’t make sense.

La’an walked down the hallway to the location Sam Kirk had pointed to her as the location to where he’d found Jenna. When they arrived, they found the location hadn’t been disturbed since Pike, Sam and Chapel had rescued Jenna and rushed her to sickbay. La’an felt a knot in her throat as feelings of both revulsion and rage filled her heart.

The floor was covered in a mess of what was left of Jenna’s uniform. La’an observed the damage finding mostly ripped off pieces of Jenna’s red uniform top and black undershirt. She’d also took notice large pieces that La’an theorized were the remains of Jenna’s pants. But one item brought sadness to La’an’s heart. Under the tattered shift remains was Jenna’s Starfleet badge. The badge had bene dented in the struggled and looked like a shadow of its former self. The badge had meant many things to so many people. For many it was a promise of protection. A promise, La’an bitterly admitted had failed to protect her friend.

Looking up from the mess on the floor, La’an could see Spock scanning the wall and floor where a significant trail of dried blood was affixed. “This was the location where Jenna was… raped.” Spock croaked out clearly finding it hard to say the words out loud.

“This attack was vicious.” La’an mumbled. “Why would someone commit such a horrid act?”

“Indeed.” Spock replied. “It is hard to imagine a member of the crew committing an act like this. The entirety of our crew is the best of Starfleet. For one of them to commit such an act, it is… illogical.”

La’an wanted to yell at him. An assault like this was more than illogical, it was damn evil. But she kept her temper in check. She’d noticed Spock’s own reactions to the news of Jenna’s rape. While his reactions had been muted, she knew he cared and that he also shared the revulsion she felt. He just didn’t always show it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Spock calling her over to him. Spock bent down and reached under one of the relays to find the remains of a tricorder, most likely Jenna’s. Spock stood up while silently observing the screen. He wordlessly gave the device to her.

La’an silently observed the device. The screen was cracked and obviously broken but the device’s screen still displayed the last task it’d been running.

“SCANNED OBJECT: DAMAGED RELAY”

"ANALYSIS: DAMAGE NOT CONSISTENT WITH OVERBLOWN FUSES. 95% LIKELYHOOD DAMAGE CAUSED BY DIRECT PHASER FIRE.”

La’an breath hitched in concern. “Spock, I think Jenna’s assault was premeditated.”

“I concur.” Spock agreed giving her nod. “Our assailant likely damaged the relays in order to lure out their victim.”

“But was Jenna the actual target or just a convenient victim?” La’an asked.

“It is difficult to say with certainty.” Spock answered. “Outside of Hemmer, few officer would have foreknowledge that a specific officer was assigned to the repair detail. The attacker could’ve just been looking for a victim but not a specific crewmember in particular.”

“Unless they were waiting for Jenna to be alone.” La’an countered. “We’ve been having power issues across the ship. Given that this relay was sabotaged, could others have been as well?”

Spock was following her logic. “The attacker would not have known who would have been assigned until they arrived. Perhaps they sabotaged relays in the hopes of luring LT Mitchell into a place where she would be alone and vulnerable.”

Spock continued. “But this is still speculation at this point. We still do not have any great deal of information on this case, let alone a suspect or motive.”

“Then we should speak to Jenna.” La’an announced.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When the pair had arrived in sick bay, they’d discovered that Jenna had regained consciousness and was currently awake. Though Nurse Chapel and Dr M’Benga were reluctant to allow the two to speak to her.

Chapel had bene the most insistent. “She’s still processing what happened to her and I really don’t think its fully sunk in yet.”

“We understand your concerns Nurse Chapel but LT Mitchell could possibly possess critical information to help our investigation and catch her assailant.” Spock replied diplomatically.

“She doesn’t remember much of anything.” M’Benga jumped in. “She took two successive strikes to her head. Her memory is foggy at best. And to be honest, I don’t think she wants to remember it anyways.”

“Look, I know Jenna.” La’an added. “She’s tough and I know she can help up.”

Chapel shot back. “She woke up screaming less than an hour ago. We had to administer a lot of anesthetics just to calm her down enough for treatment.”

“Nurse Cha… Christine.” La’an softened. “I want to help her. I don’t want to cause her more pain, but we all need to know who her attacker was.”

Nurse Chapel sighed, having lost her resolve. “Alright, but please be gentle with her.”

Spock put his hand on La’an shoulder. “Perhaps it would be best of you were to question her alone.”

Dr M’Benga nodded. “I concur. Mr Spock, perhaps I can show you the DNA evidence we uncovered during our examination and treatment.”

The two men walked away as Nurse Chapel and La’an walked over to the private medical booth, the booth that had previously held the Doctor’s daughter. Chapel went in first gently speaking to Jenna before gesturing La’an to enter.

La’an had tried to mentally prepare herself for seeing her friend, but it still hit her hard. Jenna was laying slightly elevated on the bio bed, her tattered uniforms having been exchanged for soft grey shirt and sweatpants, the common patient attire aboard ship. On what little skin Jenna had exposed, La’an could see several medical bandages, deep cuts and bruises. Furthermore, Jenna’s right arm was in a sling, the clear indication a bone in her arm had been badly broken.

La’an quickly noticed Jena shy away as she pulled the blanket closer as if trying to hide under it. “Please don’t…” Jenna whispered.

La’an shook off her stunned look. “I’m so sorry.” She whispered. “How are you doing?”

Jenna just shook her head and didn’t say a word. Chapel then spoke. “Jenna, La’an wants to ask you some questions. Now you don’t have to answer them if you don’t want to and if at any point you want this to stop, let me know.”

Jenna still pulled the blanket closer to her chest but her grip on it relaxed. She quickly nodded to La’an.

La’an took the nod as her cue to begin. “Jenna what can you tell me about what happened?”

“I was in the maintenance hallways repairing a broken relay. I remember fixing the relay and I was about to turn the power back on when my tricorder beeped at me. I went to took look at but right then…” Jenna stated her story but paused as her breath tightened. “Someone attacked me from behind. I tried to fight back but… I couldn’t.” Jenna’s last sentence barely came out as her voice cracked.

La’an carefully thought through her words before she said them aloud. “What do you remember, about your attacker?”

Jenna shook her head quickly. “I don’t remember! I never saw them. They came out of nowhere and it was so dark! And when I hit them with the tool I grabbed, it was if it just made them angrier…”

La’an had heard the words sent her mind forward. “You managed to hit them!?” She said louder than she’d anticipated.”

“What tool did you hit them with? How’d you manage to get the drop on them?” La’an began bombarding her with questions.

It only took La’an a moment to realize she’d gone too far. Jenna quickly began hyperventilating and mumbling out a bunch of mixed words and chopped sentences.

Nurse Chapel quickly stepped in. “It’s ok! It’s ok! Your safe now. You’re not alone with them anymore. Your’e with us and you’re safe.”

Nurse Chapel continued to sooth Jenna hoping her words would calm the young woman down. But as Jenna kept hyperventilating, Chapel reached for a hypospray, loaded it and gently injected it into Jenna’s neck. The woman’s panicked words died away as she lapsed back into unconsciousness.

La’an was about to speak. “Nurse Chapel, I…”

But she didn’t let her speak. “I think this interview is done now.” She spoke in a tone that left no room for interpretation or debate.

La’an knew she’d gone too far. She gave Chapel an apologetic nod and quickly exited the private medical room.

Spock was standing outside waiting for her when La’an exited. Again, Spock noticed La’an’s changed attitude. “La’an, it is clear to me that you are clearly not fine as you state earlier.”

La’an sighed. She didn’t bother hiding it this time. “You’re right. I pushed Jenna too far in my interview. Nurse Chapel had to step in.”

“I’m sorry.” Spock state sincerely. After a short pause, he continued. “I understand LT Mitchell… Jenna is you friend.”

“Yeah.” La’an sighed. “She was one of the first to help bring me into many of our crew’s fun after work activities. Helped me make a few more friends among the crew. And I repaid that by sending into hyperventilating mess.”

“Knowing you, I doubt you did such an action intentionally.” Spock offered. “You simply were trying aid her by finding her attacker.”

“But I got too aggressive.” La’an replied. “Jenna let me know that she’d managed to hit her assailant…”

Spock then interrupted her. “Jenna managed to hit her attacker?”

“Yeah.” La’an stated. “She mentioned that she’d grabbed a nearby tool and managed to strike him with it.”

“Did she say what kind of tool?” Spock asked.

“She didn’t get the chance before Chapel put her to sleep.” La’an answered. “Why do you ask?”

“LT Kirk mentioned finding a tool that supposedly had blood stains on it before he found Jenna. But no one else was able to find that tool.” Spock provided.

La’an’s eyes went wide. “If both my security team and the two of us couldn’t find it, maybe her attacker came back and took it before we could!”

“The attacker may still have the tool.” Spock said. “They must’ve been someone with access to enter the maintenance tunnels. If we review the records, we might be able to narrow our search down.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

By now, the news about the attack on LT Mitchell had spread to the crew. Many crew had been present at the crew lounge when the Captain and emerged with an unconscious Jenna in his arms shouting for everyone to make a path. Those present had told their friends and by now, the entire crew knew what had happened even without an official announcement by the command crew.

Since the news had spread, the tension aboard ship had risen to a pitch. Starfleet was hardly a place where crime ran rampant and not the place where sexual assaults happened. Plus, for a such an act to occur on the flagship, the pride of the fleet, it was completely unheard of.

The crew’s interactions had also become more tense. Interactions between departments were more intense and lacked the same zest that they normally did. Many of the younger crew even formed their own unofficial squads. These “squads” often spent most of their time together when off duty and they’d always insist on ensuring no teammate was walking alone in the corridors.

Ensign Zier had managed to join her own squad with three other ensigns. She, Christina, Shankar and Lance had all formed their own little group. Right now she and her squad, san Christina were all in the lounge nursing drinks after their shift ended.

The group had been quiet for most of the time they’d been plump down at one of the tables. Finally, Lance managed to ask a question. “Hear anything about Mitchell, Zier?”

“You do know this blue uniform isn’t a medical one, right?” Zier joked.

Lance smiled back at the good-natured jab. “I know. But you’re always going down to Sick Bay to drop off or pick up experiments.”

“Plus, you’re always working with Nurse Chapel too.” Shankar added. “Surely you must’ve heard something.”

“You’re one to ask.” Zier chuckled. “Aren’t you a Comms officer? Isn’t hearing things your job?”

Shankar scoffed. “Touché, but no. All I know is what you both probably already know. That Spock and La’an were assigned to the position of investigating this case. As far as I know they checked the maintenance hallways looking for evidence and they might be interrogating some crew soon.”

“Have they spoken to LT Mitchell yet?” Lance asked. “Is she even awake?”

Zier’s smile disappeared. “I think so.” She gestured the two men to get closer. “Earlier today I was dropping off some samples at Sick Bay when I noticed Spock talking with the Doctor.”

“What were they discussing” Shankar asked.

“I don’t know but Doc didn’t let me stick around long.” Zier admitted. “I… I might’ve overheard when Jenna first woke up…”

The two men leaned in closer, their minds both enthralled and terrified for the story their friend was telling. “I heard a lot of noise before Spock showed up… Guys, when she woke up, she was screaming so loud I could hear it from outside Sick Bay… It was scary…”

Lance put his arm on Zier’s shoulder and gave it a soft rub. Zier gave him a small smile in thanks. She then got up from her seat. “Well I should probably go wake up Christina for her shift on the bride.”

“We’ll come with you.” Shankar said and he and Lance got up and followed Zier out of the lounge.

When the group arrived at Zier and Christina’s shred quarters, they found the room pitch black. Zier was somewhat surprised by this. Christina was usually up by now and getting ready for her shift or she’d already left. Instead, a figure was lying face down on the bed, her body covered in the sheets and comforter on her bed.

“Come on Christina.” Zier yawned as she tried to coax her friend awake. But Christina wouldn’t budge.

Sighing, Zier ordered the computer to turn on the lights hoping that would rouse her friend but just like a minute ago, Christina still lay motionless on the bed.

Zier sighed even louder and grabbed the comforter and proceeded to yank it off the bed. “Come on Christina, sleeping in won’t make you shift go by…”

But Zier’s words were caught in her mouth as she observed the sight before her. With the comforter removed and the lights on, Christina’s state was plain to them all. Her nightgown had been torn open and her back was marred in scratches, bruises and cuts. Plus, a pool of blood of blood had formed and dried on the bed at around knee level.

“Help me!” Zier screamed to her friends. The two men rushed to their friend’s side as they turned her onto her back.

Lance put his hand on her neck and listened for breathing. “She still has a pulse! But her breath is shallow…”

“Get help now!” Zier screamed as she began administering CPR.

Shankar quickly went to the communicator on the wall panel. “Medical emergency on deck 6!”

Zier continued to administer CPR till Christina took a deep breath and began coughing. Zier and Lance tried to help her turn to her side so she could breathe but she resisted. Christina, her eyes closed began thrashing against them both screaming bloody murder.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back in La’an’s quarters, she was preparing herself for the next phase of the investigation when a message came onto her screen.

When she checked it, she quickly realized it was from the same anonymous sender who sent the first message after Jenna had been attacked. Just like before, the message sender had disguised the location of where the message was sent from.

She took a deep breath and opened the message. Like before, the message was on a repeated loop using the same broken computerized voice as before. “That’s two. They got their due. But there’s more to pursue. When I’m through, maybe I come from you.”

La’an took a gulp at the speaker’s words. Truthfully, La’an wasn’t scared of someone coming after her. After Spock, she was probably the best fighter on the ship. Hell, she wanted this guy to come after her. Better her than the crew.

Jenna Mitchell usually liked the calmer missions. They gave her time to catch up on her reading and they weren’t getting shot at, boarded or drawn into complex drama. But the quiet ones always came with a catch. Usually that catch was boredom or a surprise shooting battle at the worst time. Today it was worse though. Power was fluctuating across the ship, internal sensors were down across entire decks and engineering was having a hard time keeping up with all the malfunctions.

That had translated into two problems for Jenna. First, it meant doing anything on her off hours that required power impossible. The lights would keep going off at the worst moments meaning she couldn’t ever enjoy her book. Second, the cascading level of the issue had meant that Chief Hemmer had drafted anyone who’d scored higher than an 80% on their engineering exams to aide in keeping up with the busted relays. And of course, Jenna had scored an 83% in Engineering which meant she’d been one of the unlucky draftees.

That was what lead to her to her current predicament. Stuck in the access tubes at 2300 fixing a relay that had knocked out power to the crew lounge. She’d been sent there after a mountain of complaints from the crew there had annoyed Hemmer enough to send someone down to fix it.

She’d arrived with a tool kit to hear the constant gripes of the crew about spoiled food or drinks without any buzz to them. She silently cursed them as she walked behind the kitchen and climbed the tube into the service tunnel that fed power into that section.

The light was out in that section of the tunnels as she walked around looking for the bad relays. She hoped that she could find the damaged one quickly. Repairing a busted relay or replacing it was a simple job but finding it was often more luck. The damage to the relays she’d seen hadn’t all be done the same way. Sometimes the damaged relays were obvious with sparking and fried wires. Other times the wires looked no different that the good ones and she’s had to check each relay to find the bad ones, which would take hours.

Today she was lucky though. She saw the broken relay quickly, since the relay was sparking and adding some small illumination to the hallway. Jenna quickly shut off power to the relay. Behind her in the lounge, she could hear the groans and gripes of the crew no doubt annoyed that their lounge was dark on top of not able to serve them food anymore.

With the power offline, she extracted the busted relay from the wall and put it down as she picked up a fresh one from the tool kit. She inserted the new relay into the wall and ran a final check with her scanner to make sure she’d installed it right before she turned power back on.

The scanner reported that all was good, so she put the scanner on her hip as she prepared to reengage the power. Just then, her scanner beeped loudly causing her heart to skip a beat. She looked at the scanner results.

“SCANNED OBJECT: DAMAGED RELAY”

"ANALYSIS: DAMAGE NOT CONSISTENT WITH OVERBLOWN FUSES. 95% LIKELYHOOD DAMAGE CAUSED BY DIRECT PHASER FIRE.”

Jenna had to reread the report to make sure she’d seen what she thought.

“What the hell-“ Jenna began before she felt something grab her from behind and slam her into the wall. The hit disoriented her and messed with her vision. She then felt herself get thrown again. The second throw caused her shoulder to impact on the hallway before falling to the floor. Jenna thought she’d felt something break as she tried to recover and crawl away. Her attacker straddled her, pinning her body and head to the ground so she couldn’t move nor could she see her attacker.

But one of her arms was still free and close by, was one of the tools in the kit. Using all of her remaining strength she swung the tool and felt the item make contact with what she assumed was her attackers head.

But her attacker barely flinched and within seconds was back on the offensive. Her attacker backhanded her hard cutting her lip in the process. Disoriented, Jenna could barely put up any resistance as her attacker grabbed her neck and lifted her to her knees. With both hands, her attacker slammed her head into the bulkhead, hard.

Jenna was slumped against the bulkhead wall, blood trickling from her head. She could feel the pain in her body numbing as she slowly started to lose consciousness. She started to feel her body move without her input. It took a great deal of energy for her to realize her attacker was dragging her. Eventually the attacker stopped dragging her, leaving her sprawled out on the floor. By now, Jenna ability to remain conscious was waning. The last thing Jenna remembered as her vision went black was a hand raising up her shirt, and the feeling of utter revulsion.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Captain Pike had just finished his shift on the bridge and had left Ortegas in the Chair while he got some sleep. As he made his way down the hallways to his quarters, he noticed that there was a rather large and angry crowd handing around the crew lounge, which was now in pitch black.

As he marched inside, he saw that some of the crew were using their own flashlights to create some kind of light for the room. He spotted LT Sam Kirk sitting down with Cadet Uhura and Nurse Chapel having a chat.

“Hey guys.” Pike smiled as he approached them. All three got up from their seats in a sign of respect. Pike gave them both a hand indicating they could sit back down again. “What’s going on?”

“Power’s been intermittent for a bit now.” Sam answered. “The complainers finally irritated Hemmer enough that he sent someone down to repair it.” He then gestured to the room. “But as you can see, they haven’t finished yet.”

“Yeah.” Pike admitted having figured out where the annoyance was coming from. “Who did Hemmer send.”

“LT Jenna Mitchell sir.” Uhura added.

Pike frowned. Mitchell was competent at repairing relays since she’d been drafted to help. Plus, she wasn’t an egoist. If the job was above her skill level, she’d have asked for help by now.

“She has been down there a minute, hasn’t she?” Chapel added. “What could be taking so long?”

“How long has she been down there?” Pike asked.

Sam looked at his watch and frowned too. “Over an hour.”

The four officers all shared a look of concern. “Maybe we should check on her?” Uhura offered. “Make sure she’s good?”

“Officer thinking Cadet.” Pike smiled. The group got up from their seats and went to the back room where the access tube was.

Pike pressed the button to the hatch only to find it wouldn’t respond. He gestured to Sam as both men pulled on opposite ends to the door leading into the service hall, finally opening it up.

By now, the crowd had gotten angry. “Will someone light a fire under that dumbass engineering sent to fix this place?” Someone had whined out.

Christine and Uhura both nodded heads at each other and went into straight crisis management mode. “Hey, take a breath guy.” Chapel began. “We’re all have the same goals here. Fix the problem so life goes back to normal. Yelling at a fellow officer won’t get it done faster.”

“Plus, I know the officer they sent.” Uhura added. “if it’s taken this long it must be a serious issue. I’m sure she’s doing her best.”

Pike nodded back at Chapel, smiling at her skill as defusing situations. He and Sam headed into the hallway confident that Chapel and Uhura could hold the masses at bay till they found out what had happened.

The pair walked into the hallway until they found Jenna’s toolbox on the ground. “Well, this must be the relay she was working on.” Pike state.

“Looks finished too.” Sam remarked as he pulled up the damaged relay she’d removed. “So why didn’t she turn the power back on?” Sam pointed to the nearby relay that had been turned off.

Pike rubbed his chin in confusion. “Not sure…” Pike started observing the relay closer, trying to see if there was something in it that might explain where Jenna was. “I’d say she went to repair another relay but the why did she leave her tool bag?”

“Sir…” Sam said softly pointing to a section of the wall. When Pike looked there, he saw something that made his tension rise. Right on the wall at eye level was a red stain. He put his fingers up to it feeling the soft liquid. He could tell instantly the liquid was blood… human blood.

The pair silently turned down the corridor raising their lights to shine a path down the dark passage. Nearing a corner that led into two separate paths, the pair each decided to take a different direction and remaining at full alert.

Sam had gone left and was shining his light down the hallway when he noticed something out of place. Hidden hastily in the wall panels was a tool Sam recognized as one belonging to an engineer’s kit, but this tool had blood on its head. Sam was eyeing the tool when out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something. It took him a second to comprehend that what he saw was indeed the truth and not a nightmare. It was Jenna.

She was lying flat on the floor, unconscious. Sam’s cursory examination informed him that she had been attacked. Her uniform was in tatters and barely hanging off her body, having been torn in several places exposing large portions of her chest, back, hips and legs. In each location where her skin was exposed, her skin was marred with scrapes and bruises. Finally, her head had a terrible gash on the back and side covered in dried blood and there were thick bruises on her neck.

“Chris!” Sam yelled down the hallway. “I found her!”

Chris sped down the hallway less than a minute later. He too stopped in his tracks when he saw what Sam had. “She barely has a pulse.” Sam breathed out.

“MEDIC!” Pike screamed down the hall at the top of his lungs.

The two men rolled Jenna onto her back searching for signs of life-threatening injuries. They had just finished examining her when Chapel showed up, clearly having sprinted the whole way there. Chapel took quick stock of the situation and got to work assessing the wounded officer.

She dropped her head down by Jenna’s head to try and hear her breathing then moved her hands along the wounded officer’s body. “Airways not obstructed. No signs of major bleeding. But this head wound worries me. We need to get her to sick bay.”

“The malfunctions have been messing with the transporter.” Sam admitted. “We’ll need to take her straight there.”

“Sam, run ahead and see if you can find something we can cover her with.” Chapel ordered, hoping to ensure they could protect her modesty as well.

Sam nodded and sprinted off while Pike pulled out his communicator. “Pike to Bridge. Send security personnel to lock down the crew lounge and all routes into the service hatch on that level.”

“Yes sir.” Ortegas replied, her voice not hiding the shock of the request.

Sam was back within a minute with a blanket that had been draped over one of the couches in the lounge. Chapel quickly covered Mitchell’s unconscious body with the blanket and secured it to her so whoever carried her wouldn’t trip.

Pike then gave his comms to Chapel as he gently lifted Jenna’s unconscious body up, careful to avoid moving her head too much.

“Chapel to sick bay.” Chapel called into the comms. “We’re got a seriously injured crewman on deck 3. Head trauma, significant lacerations and blunt force trauma. We’re coming to you.”

The group exited the service corridor and began a breakneck sprint to sick bay, ignoring the looks of shock in the crew as they ran by.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Spock and La’an were together aboard the shuttle Galileo as it made its final approach to the Enterprise. The pair had been off ship aiding a Federation outpost in getting their defense grid established by helping them work through several bugs that had caused the grid to short out.

“Last time I agree to help anyone set up defense grids.” La’an groaned, her impatience with their completed mission evident.

“Perhaps next time we take part in such an operation we will remember to ask the staff how many experiments they are running and how much power they are draining from the grid.” Spock replied back.

“Next time?” La’an gasped. “Oh no. I am never taking part in any mission where I have to teach officers who’ve never even held a phaser how to set up remote phase cannon turrets and shield generators.”

“You are the ship’s chief of security.” Spock pointed out. “Is there anyone else on the ship with you knowledge of weapons and defensive systems?”

“You know you could’ve set the whole grid up by yourself.” La’an offered.

“Perhaps.” Spock stated “But Captain Pike does not like sending officers out alone on away missions. If you refused to accompany me. The Captain would’ve insisted I travel with LT Ortegas or perhaps even Nurse Chapel.”

The thought of Spock flying off alone with Christine Chapel sent a feeling La’an couldn’t describe into her head. Since their mind meld when facing the Gorn, Spock had been on the forefront of her mind more often than she liked to admit.

She was pulled from her thoughts when Spock spoke. “Curious. We have been within range of Enterprise for several minutes now and they have yet to respond to my hails.”

La’an immediately adopted a serious expression. The crew was usually on top of their game and not responding once in range was red flag in La’an mind. She’d hoped they’d just caught Uhura or Christina asleep at the comms but she knew that was wishful thinking.

Spock reached out on comms again and this time he got a response. Before he could even speak, a hard voice came through. “Shuttlecraft Galileo, proceed to docking immediately. LTs Spock and Noonien-Singh, proceed to sickbay upon arrival.”

The pair looked at each with similar expressions of confusion before they piloted the shuttle into the docking bay.

Once on board, the pair had rushed to sickbay to find Captain Pike, Nurse Chapel and Doctor M’Benga huddled around engaged in a deep and tense conversation. In the back, Spock could see that one of the private patient suites was active and likely occupied.

“Captain.” Spock announced himself as he and La’an came to a stop by the group.

“Spock, La’an.” Pike sighed, his voice tight with tension and grief. Spock recognized this as the same tension that dominated his mind whenever they’d learned about the loss of crewman. “We’ve got a serious situation here, one that is going to shake the crew when the scuttlebutt gets loose. LT Mitchell… Jenna… She was raped.”

Both La’an and Spock, though normally stoic and hard individuals were shaken by this announcement. While outwardly, they appeared only slightly more tense than usual, those who knew the two officers could see the tension, anger and sadness displayed in their subtle actions. Spock, who normally stood at perfect parade rest started shuffling on his feet and the clasp hands behind his back had tightened. La’an meanwhile had balled her hands into fists and her facial muscles tightened as her anger rose to the surface.

“Do we know who was responsible?” La’an asked, her voice tight in anger, waiting for a target to unleash it on.

“No.” Doctor M’Benga whispered. “She was brought in unconscious a few hours ago and she has yet to awaken.”

“Plus her attacker didn’t leave any DNA behind.” Chapel added.

“Where did the attack take place?” Spock asked, his focus trying to shift to solving this brutal act.

“The conduit tunnels that connect to the crew lounge.” Pike answered. “Security is currently holding all the entrances to the conduits sealed along with all personnel present at the lounge.”

La’an looked at Pike seeing where he was going. “Sir, are you looking to make us the primary investigators for this case?”

Pike nodded. “With internal sensors crashing ship wide, I need someone to investigate who is bot someone I trust and had an airtight alibi, which both of you have.”

Pike pulled out his PADD and handed it to La’an. “This investigation takes priority over everything LTs.” He explained them. “Pass off your other tasks to your teams. The crew wont sleep easy till this case is resolved.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

La’an had returned briefly to her quarters in order to change into a fresh uniform and grab a quick cup of coffee before she went right back to work.

As La’an removed her uniform, her shirt got briefly stuck in her hair as she removed it. In frustration, she slammed the shirt into her couch.

La’an could already tell this investigation was going to be a hard one. Not because of the difficulty of the case but because how close to home it would strike. La’an didn’t have many friends on the Enterprise but she’d recently counted Jenna in that list. At first, the two hadn’t gotten along. Jenna was always too optimistic for La’an’s taste but overtime the pair had developed a friendship. As La’an had started to open herself up to the crew, Jenna had been one of the first to include in group get togethers including those involving Chapel, Ortegas and Nyota. To hear that such a kind soul had been violated in such a horrid way was crushing to her.

But her anger stream was broken was the sound of an incoming message on her console. Not bothering to put on a new shirt over her sports bra, La’an walked over to the console and pulled up the message.

The message was a repeating spoken sentence, in a voice that sounded like a busted computer. But the words sent a chill down La’an spine.

To say Admiral April wasn’t pleased with the Enterprise crew when they came back was an understatement. Most of his annoyance was due to the fact that he himself would have to be responsible for handling the disciplinary measures for the crew. Normally a ship’s Captain or First Officer would handle internal discipline for crewmembers who stepped out of line, but Captain Pike was off looking for a lawyer for Una and Spock… well Spock was today the cause of the discipline issues.

So here he was, stuck in his office all night trying to come up with an appropriate disciplinary measure for the Enterprise’s command crew before they returned to Starbase One tomorrow. Initially he’d promised Spock that his only punishment would be his Klingon sized hangover, but recent events had pushed him to consider Admiral’s Mast.

This wasn’t the first time the Enterprise and its crew had gone off the reservation or butted heads with official orders and regulations. Plus, with war on the horizon, he needed everyone in the fleet to learn how to work together.

Just then, an idea came to him. April stood up and smile as he keyed the comms. “Computer send a recorded message to LT Spock on the USS Enterprise.”

The computer chirped in acknowledgement, waiting for him to compose his message. “LT Spock, upon arrival at Starbase One, I want to see you and your command crew in my office at 0900 sharp, April Out.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Spock had learned he, Noonien-Singh, Mitchell, Uhura, M’Benga Ortegas had been summoned to speak with the Admiral when they returned to base, it had put him on edge. The admiral had indeed been furious with him when he’d reported back in with his hangover no less, but he’d logically assumed that the hangover would be their only punishment.

And now here they all were, sitting outside the Admiral’s office for several minutes waiting for the proverbial hammer to drop. Each member of the crew was displaying telltale signs of nervousness. Jenna kept fidgeting with her uniform, Erica kept trying to find a comfortable way to sit but couldn’t sit still, Nyota kept talking under her breath, Spock theorizing that she was prepping her defense if asked.

Only M’Benga and La’an didn’t display outward signs of concern. M’Benga’s eyes followed each of the nervous crewmembers taking stock of their ticks. La’an meanwhile sat at attention like she normally did in briefings though he did notice a slight tension in her jaws, something he noticed she’d displayed more than once during other trying situations. He started wondering why now he was noticing this in her, theorizing that his lack of emotional control might be making him more aware of her.

Before he could theorize further, the Admiral’s aide informed them that the Admiral was ready to see them. The group nervously walked into his office to see Admiral April sitting down by his desk. “Please sit down.”

They complied silently. The Admiral got up from his chair and circled around to stand right in front of them all. “You’ve all created quite a mess for us to deal with. Somehow in the course of a single day, the six of you managed to disobey my orders…” Spock bit his lip.

He continued “-fake a warp core breach” causing Jenna and Nyota to rub their necks in embarrassment.

“-steal a Federation starship” Ortegas grimaced.

“… And yet somehow you all manage to rescue a member of your own crew and stop a war from breaking out between us and the Klingons.” He finished as the crew waiting with bated breath too concerned to even breath.

After a minute, Spock finally ventured making a remark. “Sir as I said before, the responsibility for this event is entirely mine…”

April interrupted him. “As Captain it is indeed your responsibility however you definitely couldn’t steal the Enterprise without help. Everyone here played a role in the events of the past few days.”

He took a breath and grabbed his PADD. “The Enterprise is the flagship of the fleet and represents the best of Starfleet. But this little stunt isn’t the first time the crew has balked Starfleet rules. The Kiley 279 incident, flying into unaligned space without authorization, plus all the complaints I’m fielding from Operational Support about this crew’s resistance to the technical upgrades.”

The crew all quietly grimaced and shuffled their feet in discomfort. April continued. “I’d like to nick this trend before it becomes a serious issue. So, here’s what’s going to happen. All of you here will have your shore leave revoked and you’ll spend the rest of your time in space dock taking part in a series of team building exercises.”

April passed his PADD to Spock to read. “This is a very extensive list sir.” Spock choked out, his dismay evident.

“Sir, with all due respect.” Ortegas interjected. “We’ve proven ourselves time and time again. Why do we need to take part in these ridiculous exercises?”

April smiled. “Because your ability to work with others inside Starfleet is also important. As is your ability to work within the rules. You may not like some of our regulations, but they exist for a reason.”

La’an raised her hand slowly. “Uh… sorry don’t mean to be that person but why am I involved in this conversation? After all, I didn’t actually steal the Enterprise…”

“But you have been gone from the fleet for months now. Consider this a chance to help reintegrate yourself back into fleet life.” April replied before turning to everyone.

“Sir if I may.” Spock added. “When we spoke, you state our only punishment would be my hangover. What may I ask changed your mind?

“Oh this isn’t punishment Mr. Spock.” April countered. “This is a team building exercise intended to help this crew work better together within Starfleet regulations.”

“I fail to see the distinction.” Spock admitted.

April then sighed. “You’re all dismissed.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Spock had been correct in his initial statement that the team building event was quite extensive. April had arranged for them to take part in several exercises over the course of the next two weeks. The first of those events being a mindfulness meditation workshop in one of Starbase One’s biomes.

The event had proven to be a complete failure. Spock had found the event completely useless since Vulcan had taught him everything he needed to know about meditation. He’d spent the entire event ignoring the counselor’s words and indeed trying to put himself into his own meditative state. Though the actions of other crew members made that harder.

He was currently sitting in the back alternating between trying to find his own center and observing the actions of the crew.

Ortegas couldn’t sit still for very long without having to readjust and move around. Jenna, sitting next to her wasn’t doing much better. Spock had observed that Jenna just looked exhausted, and she kept dozing off while trying to center. One time, Ortegas had accidently knocked Jenna on the head while readjusting her seat and had woken up the other officer. Jenna had responded by stealing one of Ortega’s pillows.

Uhura and M’Benga at least were trying to get something out of it. Spock could see that Uhura had tried to engage in the meditation and had succeeded for a few minutes before it seemed that something and had entered her mind and distracted her. By now, she’d looked bored. M’Benga had actually been in a meditative trance before he’d been interrupted by Jenna and Erica’s antics. Annoyed, he’d picked up the book beside his station and smacked both young women on the back of the head eliciting soft owes from both.

His voice just above a whisper but filled with the paternalistic tone he’d no doubt used before. “Behave children.”

His words having an immediate silencing effect on the two women who both silently went back to trying to meditate.

La’an sitting next to Spock and having just as hard of a time focusing stifled a laugh at the event she just saw. She noticed Spock eyeing her. “Sorry.” She whispered.

“Do not worry.” Spock replied. “My focus is not on my meditation.”

“So where was it?” La’an asked.

“I must admit my focus was on returning to duty on Enterprise.” Spock admitted.

“Always the workaholic.” La’an smiled.

“Not exactly what I meant.” Spock admitted.

“Oh?” La’an asked, intrigued by Spock’s admission as well as the fact that he’d offered this up so freely.

“I must admit, seeing you back with us now fills me with hope.” Spock said.

“Hope for what” La’an asked?

“My time on the Enterprise has been very… agreeable. And while at times the crew can be exasperating.” He nodded his head in the direction of Ortegas and Mitchell who had gone back to their antics though slightly quieter than normal. “I would not have it any other way.”

La’an smiled. “Spock are you saying that you missed me?” She smirked and moved her hand from her spot to rest on Spock’s leg.

Spock tensed up a bit before responding. “I supposed I did.”

Just then the bell rang indicating that the session was over and the crew was released for the day.

“Oh thank God.” Ortegas remarked as she quickly stood up.

“I don’t know about you guys but I could definitely use a drink.” Jenna admitted as Erica nodded emphatically in agreement.

M’Benga smirked his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Mr Spock I’m not sure if these two should even be considered old enough to drink. What with them acting like five year-olds all day.”

The two women looked between each other. “First rounds on us?” Erica offered.

Everyone smiled as Nyota commented. “Sounds like a plan to me. Would you like to join us sir?” Nyota turned to Spock.

“Me?” Spock asked, surprised to be getting an offer to socialize with the crew.

“Yeah, I mean we all stole a ship together. Creates a bond.” Nyota smiled.

“Plus, we can workshop your captain’s chair thing.” Erica added as everyone began walking out of the biome and towards the bar.

“What is wrong with my thing?” Spock asked.

“Nothing at all.” Jenna admitted. “But it could always use some improvement.”

“Spock has a thing now?” La’an asked shuffling closer to the science officer. “Like how Chris always says Hit It?”

“Oh yeah.” Nyota said stifling a laugh.

“This I got to hear.” La’an smiled.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The 602 Club crowd had arrived in force just before the Enterprise crew arrived. The music was blasting through the club with patrons dancing on the floor, huddle around the bar for a drink or sitting down at a booth.

The crew had taken the time to change into more appropriate club attire before regrouping at the bar that night. Now they were all sitting down at a booth at an elevate level that oversaw the dance floor. Erica was the last to arrive with two very large bottles of something Erica only referred to as liquid courage.

Spock had initially resisted the drink when it was passed to him, his mind still remembering the hangover from Cajitar Four. Though La’an coaxing convinced him to just nurse the drink for the night.

The night had gone off quite well. Christine had stopped by to pay homage to those in the Admiral’s Doghouse as she called it. The girls had all gone out onto the dance floor a few times to dance the night away. During some of the slower songs, Erica and Christine had gone out to the dance floor together. Uhura had taken those times to ask M’Benga if he could show her how to dance as well. He’d graciously done so much like how a father might teach a daughter before her first dance. Jenna had spent most of time going back and forth from the bar getting everyone’s drinks. She’d been offered to dance with others but had politely declined stating that she wasn’t a great dancer.

Spock had sympathized with her and had stayed at the booth most of the night watching the rest of the crew have their fun. That was until La’an had dragged him out to the dance floor. Spock had tried to refuse but the alcohol had dulled his resistance.

The pair got on the dance floor as the next song, a romantic one played. Spock followed the song’s beat content with a simple eight count step. La’an followed his lead gracefully.

“I didn’t know you could dance.” She admitted, surprise in her voice.

“I have never claimed to not know how to dance.” Spock replied as he continued the dance.

“I guess I’m just more surprised you agreed to come let alone actually come out on the dance floor.” La’an replied.

Spock, now confident in the basic eight count now began spinning La’an out in step before pulling her in. “After Valeo Beta V, I’ve had a difficulty controlling some of my emotions. Perhaps that loss of control is part of the reason I agreed to come out tonight.”

“Does that scare you” La’an asked, some concern in her voice. She knew how important his emotional control was to him, to all Vulcans in fact.

“I will not lie, it does.” Spock admitted as he moved to dip La’an just as the song neared its end. “But I will not let my fear control me. I will face this experience and face this fear.”

La’an smiled at the bottom of the dip and cupped his face. “I believe you will.”

As the song got to an end, the pair walked off the dance floor feeling an energy they hadn’t before. As they neared their booth, that euphoria turned into concern as they saw the events unfolding.

Three very drunk patrons were standing on opposite sides of Jenna Mitchell boxing her into her seat. “Hello there beautiful, how bough you and I share a nice dance tonight at my place?”

Jenna, still somewhat drunk though guarded tried to let the man down gently. “No thank you. I’m here with my friends, I’m not here looking for a hookup.”

But the man didn’t let it go. He closed the gap with Jenna and pushed her back into her seat. “Come on now you tease. Don’t you go turning me down yet.”

“I believe she said she wasn’t interested.” Spock announced in his command voice, getting the attention of the two men.

“Why don’t you butt out man!” The second man yelled. “This ain’t your business.”

“Oh?” La’an growled. “You’re both accosting our friend. So that makes it our business.”

“I suggest you leave this be girly.” The third man state showing the grip of a phaser pistol in his belt. “Unless you want trouble.”

“You all will be in deep trouble if you threaten a Starfleet officer once more.” Spock threatened.

“I’m done with this shit.” The first man said as he grabbed Jenna’s wrist and attempted to pull her out with him. Jenna kneed him in the groin and twisted his arm behind his back. The second man whirled around to face Jenna and managed to lay a solid punch to her face, knocking her to the ground and causing her to release her grip on the first man. The third man grabbed his phaser and tried to level it at Spock but the Vulcan acted fast twisting the man’s wrist and ripping the weapon from his hand.

The fight had caused at the music to stop as a crowd formed around the fighting. The first man recovered fast and charged La’an knocking her into the nearby table. La’an threw the man off her so she could get back to her feet. The man grabbed a broken bottle and swung it at La’an but she effortlessly dodged it. After a few strikes, she was able to wrap her arm around the arm holding the broken bottle, immobilizing it. She then kept striking harder and harder at the man’s head and gut hoping to knock him out while trying to block his hits from his free arm. But her strikes were more precise than his drunken swings and her hits eventually caused the man to pass out.

Spock meanwhile was facing down his attacker. With the man’s phaser busted, the man had tried a series of strikes only for Spock’s superior reflexes to catch and reflect them. Growing frustrated, the man charged Spock intent on taking him down. Spock flipped the man over his head and threw him down on a table nearby causing it to break under the force of the man’s weight.

The pair both realized their opponents were down and turned to face the final opponent who’d been attacking Jenna, only to find that the last man too was unconscious on the floor. Based on the liquid on the man’s head, the shattered glass around his and the broken bottle in Jenna’s hand, the two surmised that Jenna had smashed one of their bottles on the man’s head to knock him out.

As the adrenaline seeped from their bodies, the rest of the crew had made their way through the crowd to the scene before them.

By now, with the fight over, the crowd had dispersed leaving the officers and few onlookers and the only people there. Dr M’Benga and Christine each took a second to access the damage done as their friends were each sporting a few injuries themselves. Jenna had a bruise under her eye where she’d been sucker punched. La’an had a few scrapes on her arms from behind thrown to the floor. Spock however looked no worse for wear.

“Ow.” Jenna grimaced as M’Benga applied a makeshift icepack to the woman’s head.

“Well maybe next time you get into a fight.” The doctor said jokingly. “Try not to block closed fists with your face.

Christine meanwhile was pulling out a few glass shards from La’an back. “We leave you three alone for a few minutes to get drinks and you all start a bar brawl.”

“You know what’s gonna come next right?” Erica asked rhetorically.

Nyota nodded. “Yeah, The Admiral is going to kill us.”

“Perhaps not.” Spock offered drawing the attention of the others. “The point of this exercise was to teach us teamwork while still obeying Starfleet regulations. An investigation will clearly show we were not the instigators of this conflict and that we only fought back to defend ourselves, well within Starfleet rules.”

The trek back to the nearest Federation Starbase was becoming very tense. The revelation of what the away team had discovered on the Shran had spread through the ship like wildfire. The news had put everyone on edge. Despite numerous investigations by the science team and several security sweeps of the Shran, nothing came up that could shed even the tiniest hint as to what happened.

And without a cause, the crew had turned to paranoia. Theories had ranged from the unplausible like Klingons having poisoned their food supply to the deranged like a new Romulan weapon designed to curb aggressive behavior.

Normally Spock would’ve found the human proclivity towards these ideas to be fascinating, but it was slowly becoming dangerous. Spock had noticed that anytime the lights even flickered, any nearby crew he saw grew severely agitated. He’d even had to intervene when two Andorian and Tellarite crewmembers had nearly come to blows with mutual accusations.

“Number One to Spock.” Spock stopped his march to the science lab to answer his communicator.

“Go ahead sir.” He replied.

“Ensign Lance hasn’t shown up for his shift on the bridge yet and he’s over half an hour overdue.” Una stated.

“That is the twelfth crewmen who has been late for their shift in the last two days.” Spock added, a small amount of irritation present in his voice. He quickly shut his annoyance down. He had to remind himself to keep his temper in check. While lateness to a bridge shift was wholly unprofessional, it served no purpose to allow his irritation to be so obvious. “I am close to junior officer crew quarters. Would you prefer I retrieve him?”

“Please do Mr Spock.” Una said. She continued though a great deal softer. “He better have a good reason for his tardiness. Ensign Christina looks like she’s about to pass out at her console right now.”

“I will endeavor to hurry then. Spock out.” He closed his communicator and followed the corridors till he found Ensign Lance’s quarters.

Spock pressed the ring and waited. After a minute with no response, he rung the door again. When no one came, he used his security override to open the door. Inside he found Ensign Lance, laying flat on the bed, still in his uniform from yesterday’s shift.

Spock could feel the anger rising in himself. Taking a sigh of exasperation, he turned to the matter synthesizer and requested a glass of water. He walked over to the sleeping Ensign and threw the water on the man’s face.

Ensign lance sputtered to life as the water hit him. Sluggishly, he rose himself from his bed muttering a dozen human curses until he saw Spock’s face.

“Sir.” Ensign Lance stammer out. “What… What are you doing here?”

“Ensign, you are over thirty minutes late for your shift on the bridge.” Spock said, trying to sound professional while keeping his annoyance in check.

“Oh shit…” Lance said as he looked around his room. “I must have slept in.” “That much is obvious.” Spock snarked at him. Taking a breath before his continued. “Please take a minute to put a clean uniform shirt on then head up to the bridge to replace Ensign Christina.”

Spock then departed and headed for the bridge. Within a minute, he could hear what he presumed was Ensign Lance fast walking in order to catch up. The two took the turbolift in silence to the bridge.

Once they were on the bridge, Spock turned to sit at his own console whilst the two Ensigns began their swap off. As Ensign Christina departed from her seat, she “accidently” smacked her shoulder into Ensign Lance.

“Ow! What the hell?” Lance complained.

“Oops.” Christina said, no sympathy at all in her voice.

“Look I’m sorry I’m late. I’m just so tired.” Lance said.

“So am I!” Christina retorted, getting the attention of nearly everyone on the bridge. “But at least I wasn’t the one almost an hour late for his shift.”

“Enough you two!” Una ordered as she pinched her brow.

“Given how you’ve been nodding off at the console the last two days, I don’t think you’re in the best place to complain.” Lance countered closing the distance between them. “Maybe if you calmed down, you wouldn’t be acting like such bitch!”

That sent her over the edge. Christina slapped him, hard. There was a moment of dead silence on the bridge as Lance and Christina book took in what had just happened. But when that moment ended, all hell broke loose. Both Ensigns started attacking each other with full fury. For Spock, it was like watching two Klingon warriors trying to rip each other to bits. Una and La’an stepped in to grab and extract Ensign Christina while Spock and Ortegas subdued Ensign Lance.

“Get them off the bridge!” Pike ordered. Two security officers arrived a minute later, grabbed the two ensigns and escorted them off the bridge. Once they were gone, Pike led Una, Spock and La’an to his ready room.

“What the hell is going on here?” Pike asked to his officers.

“Everyone on this ship is on edge sir.” La’an sighed loudly. “Without answers, people are starting to panic as paranoia and fear take over.

“Furthermore sir, LT Hemmer’s report of lighting and other power issues throughout the ship is fueling those fears.” Spock added. “People are starting to fear that what happened to the Shran might happen here.”

“Are we in danger of that happening here?” Una asked, poorly disguised worry in her voice.

“I am uncertain.” Spock admitted. “We simply do not possess enough information as to the cause of the Shran’s losses. Without more information, we have no way of knowing if our own misfortunes are cause for greater concern beyond simple low morale.”

“I’ve seen ships with low morale, never ones where crewmembers repeatedly late and picking fights on the bridge.” La’an started to lean against the table. Spock could tell just looking at her that she was exhausted.

“Maybe we can do something to raise their spirits.” Pike wondered aloud. “Something to keep them from killing each other till we make port.”

“Movie night? Large banquet?” Una offered.

La’an gave a small laugh. “Yeah I can see it now. Distracting everyone with an episode of…”

But she didn’t finish that sentence. La’an lost her grip on the table and started to fall to the floor. Spock was there in record time to catch her before she hit the ground, letting her brace herself on his chest, he helped her back to her feet.

“You ok La’an?” Una asked in her motherly voice that La’an had known far too well.

“I’m fine.” La’an said avoiding eye contact as Spock lowered her down to the nearby chair. “I just… lost my balance”

Una took a seat next to her cupping her face in her hands. “La’an, when was the last time you slept?”

The question seemed to puzzle La’an for a second. “Umm… I…”

Una sighed. “Did you stay up all night again? Oh La’an.” Una said the last part with the same tone a mother might use when gently chastising their child.

La’an turned away sheepishly. She felt bad for having upset Una. The woman had been like a second mother to her, and it never sat well with her whenever Una was disappointed with her actions.

Spock interjected to save her. “Perhaps LT, now would be a good time to take a sick day and recuperate?”

La’an nodded silently. She tried to stand up but her feet felt like jelly and she just about collapsed again. Like before, Spock was there to catch her and help balance her. “Can you…” She began.

“I will assist you back to your room.” Spock answered tenderly as he readjusted his grip on her to make her more comfortable. The two then exited the conference room and began the trek back to La’an’s quarters.

The walk back was abnormally solitary. Given La’an’s slower pace, the trip was taking a great deal longer than normal. After several minutes of awkward silence, La’an finally spoke. “I served on the Shran once.”

“You did?” Spock asked surprised by her decision to reveal such information. “Did you know any of the current crew?”

“Not many. Most had transferred out after I left.” La’an answered. “But I did know one of the ship’s security officers. LT David North. He took over my position after I transferred out. But I knew him from before.”

“Before?” Spock inquired. “We were students at the academy together.” La’an answered. “I didn’t have many friends at the academy, but he and I were still close.”

“Were you two ever…” Spock asked, a hint of jealousy in his voice.

La’an gave a small smile. The concept that her big, tall logical Vulcan could feel an emotion like jealousy was unexpected but extremely funny to her. “No. We bonded over shared loss. He’d lost his family to the Klingons during a raid before the war. I guess we both bonded over our loss.”

Spock nodded as the pair continued down the hallway until they neared sickbay. As they arrived, they saw two of their fellow officers, LTs Mitchell and Ortegas having a rather heated discussion. “Look I don’t want to talk about Erica.” Mitchell said, her tone showcasing her evident frustration.

“I’m telling you it can’t have been that bad.” Erica joked. “Come on we all do embarrassing stuff here. Did I ever tell you about that time at the academy when I…”

“You have.” Mitchell said with more annoyance in her voice. “Many times.”

“When then you know.” Erica smiled and continued her argument as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “We all mess up and do funny stuff.”

“What happened wasn’t funny Erica.” Jenna countered angrily. “What I saw there was downright terrifying, and I don’t feel like laughing about how pathetic I must’ve looked. Everyone else has done enough of that.”

“Come on you can’t let what everyone else is saying get to you. Erica remarked, a new measure of kindness in her voice. “You want people to stop bugging you about it then you’ve gotta roll with it.”

“I really wish YOU would stop bugging me about it.” Jenna said through gritted teeth. Spock and La’an and stopped their match to her quarters after having seen the tension in Jenna escalating, and Erica apparently being completely ignorant of it.

“Look I’m just trying to help…” But Erica couldn’t finish her sentence. Jenna had grabbed her and slammed her friend against the bulkhead.

Jenna stared over her friend as Erica’s mind caught up to what had just happened. “Stay the hell away from me.” Jenna yelled at her before stomping down the hall in the opposite direction that Spock and La’an were in.

The pair in turn had been frozen to their spot, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Jenna Mitchell and Erica Ortega had been very close friends. Jenna’s aggression at her friend had come as a surprise. Once they got over their shock, the pair moved to Erica and helped her to her feet.

“Are you alright Lieutenant?” Spock asked as he helped Erica up.

“Yeah…” Erica began as she looked down the hallway her friend had left down. “What the hell just happened?”

“It seems the events on the Shran have affected LT Mitchell more so than she had led us to believe.” Spock theorized.

“No kidding.” La’an commented then turned to face Erica. “Has she ever been this way before?”

“No. Jenna’s always been one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. She loves flying ships and musical theatre. She’s not a violent person.” Erica replied defending her friend.

“So what do you think we should do now?” La’an asked tensly. She hated where this line of questioning could go but she needed to ask it. Mitchell had assaulted a fellow officer and that was indeed a court martial level offense. La’an hated having to put her own people on trial but as Chief of Security, it was a necessary duty that she’d sometimes had to perform.

But thankfully Erica Ortegas was not in the mood for such an act. “No please don’t push this any further. I’ll give her a few days of space and talk to her once we make it to the Starbase. She doesn’t deserve to have her career ruined over this.

Erica then removed herself from Spock and La’an’s hold as she departed. Spock and La’an meanwhile continued their trek towards La’an’s quarters. Once inside, La’an thanked him for the escort as she went about removing her uniform and changing into her pajamas.

Meanwhile, Spock took note of the decorations that made up her quarters. La’an’s quarters were remarkably spartan compared to most of the senior officers on the ship. There were a few decorations that he recognized as certificates of achievement and medals from bravery. What he did notice was a low volume of any decorations regarding family. He charted a small picture by the bed of a large group of humans outside a starship that Spock theorized was the S.S. Puget Sound. Another picture he saw contained La’an with LT CMDR Una Chin Riley. Given the background of the academy, Spock suspected this photo was taken on her graduation date. The one that drew the most attention was a small picture on the wall was of a young La’an, perhaps a teenager beside a pair of adults and two teens that he couldn’t identify. Unlike the previous picture where Spock saw either a familiar face or family resemblance, the group in the last photo shared no physical resemblance to her.

La’an had fully changed into a silk black nightgown. She quickly noticed the attention Spock paid to the photo. She walked over to him.

“This group of humans is not anyone I am familiar with.” Spock observed. “Are you friends with them?”

La’an nodded slightly. “Of a sort. They were the family that took me in after I was rescued.”

Spock turned to her with a look of surprise. “I had assumed that you had been raised by CMDR Chin Riley, given the closeness you share.”

“She was around a lot growing up, but she was just starting her own career. She couldn’t take care of me full time, but she made sure I found my way into a good home.” La’an explained.

“What were their names?” He asked.

“Paula and Lenoard.” La’an said softly, as if saying the words would cause something to break.

“You do not mention this family often.” Spock observed.

La’an took a step back from Spock and walked over to the bed, putting a bit of distance between them. “Yeah… I know.”

“May I ask why?” Spock inquired.

La’an sighed. “I guess it’s because I don’t talk to them often.”

Spock gave his classic quizzical eyebrow move, clearly expecting her to continue. “Don’t get me wrong I’m grateful to them for taking me in, but I was trouble. Always getting into fights, creating trouble where none existed.”

“Clearly it must be more than that.” Spock observed.

“Spock…” La’an began as he walked around the bed she’d put between them and gripped her hands in his.

“You clearly care about this family and are grateful to them.” Spock observed. “If not, it is unlikely you would’ve kept a picture of them in your room. So why is it they are causing you such anxiety?

La’an took a shaky breath. “Spock, I was never their true child. They had real children of their own. I was just an obligation they had to fulfill.

Realization dawned for Spock. “Is that why you never changed your name?”

La’an gave a quick nod. “Partly. But also… I didn’t want to forget my family. My parents, my brother. The name might have a stigma but as long as I kept it, at least a part of them would live on in me.”

“That life they gave you isn’t worth much if you refuse to allow yourself to live it.” Spock delivered as softly as he could.

La’an turned her face to him in mild shock. She wanted to argue with him but the fight in her was already gone, because she knew he was right. “Isn’t that what I’ve been doing with you the past few weeks? Plus are you really the best person to judge when it comes to terrible life choices?”

Spock gave her a soft nod of agreement as he helped her lay down on the bed. “Please get yourself some adequate rest. I will see you in the morning.”

As he walked out of her room, she spoke to him. “Hey Spock, you make sure you do the same.”

The next day however didn’t seem to bring the rest any of them needed. Spock had been tossing in his bed for hours, but sleep hadn’t even come. By morning, he’d given up and went to his closet to change into a new pair of clothes

When he arrived in the conference room, everyone looked extremely ragged. LT Hemmer began his brief one everyone was there. “Sir, we’ve been having some power issues throughout the ship.”

“You talking about the annoying light flickering?” Una asked, annoyance evident in her voice.

“That’s only a symptom of the problem.” Hemmer continued. “Several decks are now experiencing power flow problems. The only problem I can’t pinpoint where its coming from. We’ve got plenty of power for this ship, but several decks appear to have been cut from the EPS network.”

Spock look up with concern. “That appears to be very similar to what LT Mitchell reported on the Shran.”

“Possibly.” Hemmer continued. “But I’m worried my crew is too exhausted right now to conduct such repairs. Since the Shran, the crew’s been having difficulties sleeping and they’ve been getting into more fights than ever.”

Spock looked to La’an in concern. “Fine whatever.” CPT Pike replied.

Hemmer, Spock and La’an looked at Pike is disbelief. “Sir?” Hemmer asked.

“As long as we make it to port intact, I don’t care if you resolve it not or when we’re back.” Pike said as he picked up from the table along with Una and Ortegas, all of them looking annoyed and tired.

“That was… unexpected.” Spock said as they watched their fellow officers depart.

“That’s an understatement.” Hemmer added.

“I’ve never seen CPT Pike behave so flippantly before.” La’an admitted.

“La’an, Hemmer, I am concerned that what happened to the Shran could’ve spread to Enterprise.” Spock admitted. “I also can theorize that if it has, I believe we have also been infected.”

“How would that be possible?” La’an asked. “We scanned for biohazards when we entered and left the shuttle both times.”

“Unless it doesn’t affect a person physically but psionically.” Hemmer added in.

“You suggest we’re dealing with a telepathic presence? Can you sense it?” Spock asked.

“No, but I have been feeling off since we encountered the Shran.” Hemmer admitted. “Psionics is the only thing I can think of that would make sense.”

“Whatever the source is, we need to find it.” La’an said. “Is there any way we can protect ourselves from whatever this

“I believe myself and LT CMDR Spock have been able to block out the effect due to our telepathic training. You, LT seem to have some form of resistance already.” Hemmer answered.

“Possibly a side effect of the mind meld.” Spock added.

“Alright then, we all need to work together to get out of this.” La’an declared. “I scan Enterprise and the Shran for anomalies. Hemmer will keep working the power problem and Spock…”

“I will be reviewing the Shran’s logs. Perhaps an answer lies there that we haven’t discovered yet.

An hour later, Hemmer had reported in, calling the senior officers to Deck 8. However only Spock and La’an arrived within a few minutes, the others believed to be lagging behind.

“What did you find?” Spock asked looking up from the PADD that contained the Shran’s logs.

“The main source of the EPS malfunctions is down here on Deck 11, Section 4.” Hemmer explained. “Either of you find out anything?

“Indeed.” Spock said showing his PADD. “The logs have proven to be quiet fascinating. The ones that offer the most promise appear to be those of the ship’s Chief Science Officer. I found several hidden personal logs of his going back weeks. I have been reviewing them.”

“What have you learned about him?” La’an asked.

“The man appears to be a very ambitious and mischievous individual. He always had some kind of scheme planned to deal with whatever troubles came his way. His studies might hold the key to explaining why our crews are behaving the way they are.

By the time in their conversation the other officers arrived, the trio could tell they all looked horrid. Their movements were ragged, slow and they were aggressively sniping at each other the entire way or they looked like they’d pass out where they stood.

“Why are we all here LT Hemmer?” Pike asked rubbing his temple.

“I believe I found the source of our technical problems.” Hemmer answered.

“Great.” Ortegas said with biting sarcasm. “You know blue man group this was the kind of conversation that could’ve been done over comms.

“We got dragged all the way down here for this?” Christine sighed.

Spock leaned into La’an. “I truly hope when we resolve this technical issue that the crew with return to their normal selves.”

La’an gave a nod of approve to Spock but she stopped hallway as her eyes were drawn to something in the dark corridor. She walked past the group, the snark session between them ended as all their eyes were on the Chief of Security as she silently and carefully edged her way closer to the dark corridor, her eyes trying to focus on whatever it ways she’d seen a moment ago.

Just when she was about give up, a pair of bright red eyes appear in the corridor, causing La’an to recoil in fear.

“Something’s down there.” She managed to get out.

“What was it?” Spock asked, the same fear evident in her voice.

“Who cares?” Erica retorts.

“La’an, your eyes were probably playing tricks on you anyways.” Christine sighed.

“She’s probably right La’an.” Una chimed in.

“No, I swear I saw something!” La’an countered, anger growing in her voice along with her fear.

“Look, let’s forget all this and just get back to Starbase One…” Chris tried to say.

“I’m not leaving till we check out whats down there!” La’an yelled at the top of her lungs, drawing everyone else in the corridor into a stunned silence.

“If I may.” Hemmer interjected. “The conduit we have to fix is down that hallway anyways. If we’re going to keep the ship from more blackouts, we should fix it.”

“Spock and I will clear the halls.” La’an ordered. “Once its clear, Hemmer, you can come down and fix the conduits.”

The trio nodded as the now lethargic crewmembers just sighed in exasperation and sat down in the hallway. La’an and Spock pulled out their personal phasers along with tactical lights as they began the trek down the dark corridor.

As they walked down the corridor, Spock’s mind was still partially focused on his PADD that contained the records, specifically those of the Chief Science Officer T’Ran. The pair had arrived at one of the blown EPS relays when La’an noticed that Spock was paying additional attention to his PADD.

“Something of interest for you on it?” She asked, her rifle still pointed down range.

“The records of Scientist T’Ran are fascinating.” Spock admitted. “I believe his experiments may hold clues to understanding our current dilemma.

“You said that a few hours ago, find anything since?” La’an asked, somewhat curious.

“Perhaps. He was conducting some kind of research on an unknown specimen he brought back from the borderlands. Apparently, this research wasn’t authorized as I can find no records of it in the ships data logs. Furthermore, these particular records have been encrypted and they don’t match the official records submitted to the ship’s command team.” Spock answered as he continued to tap at the PADD.

“Illegal experiment.” La’an clenched her teeth. “Hasn’t that destroyed enough Starfleet ships? Didn’t this scientist hear about what happened to the Cabot?”

“I suspect he was aware, but it didn’t concern him. Perhaps, in his arrogance he believed that his experiments wouldn’t result in the same catastrophic failure.” Spock theorized, saddened to see that perhaps several Starfleet officers had died because of the ego of a scientist.

La’an got up from her perch and turned to Spock. “I’m going to check the next junction. Form up with me when you finish tagging this one.”

The pair nodded as they got back to their business. Spock ran through the junction once more, tagging the panels in need of repair. He was about to depart and form up with La’an when his eyes noticed something on the PADD, he turned to the PADD and kept reading.

By then, La’an had arrived at the next EPS junction at a corner in the hall. She still felt tense as she approached it. She knew something was out there but as of now, she hadn’t encountered it.

Spock eyes quick sped through the pages of the encrypted reports till he found what he was looking for on the last page. It was a drawing, one clear enough for Spock to know exactly what it was. His eyes went and his voice had an audible gasp. Spock dropped the PADD and sprinted down the hallway.

La’an was bent over observing the next EPS conduit when she felt a presence staring down at her. She slowly rose her head up lifting the rifle to shine the light. And when she did, La’an felt something she hadn’t felt since the Gorn had taken her family; terror.

Above her were several creatures that she could describe as nothing less than monsters. A pitch black ooze covered their skin, in some cases dripping off their bodies like molten tar, their arms, bent unnaturally in several places hung at their side swinging like meat hanging on a hook. Their heads were humanoid but severely misshapen with the jaw hanging from skull loosely allowing the creatures mouth to extend to a disturbingly long amount. But it was how they carried themselves that send the deepest shivers down La’an’s spine. They were hunched over in several places with the torso leaning heavily forward or back and the head looking like it had been twisted to bend until it was almost resting on one of its shoulders.

And then they saw her.

They let out a screech that shook the halls. La’an found her head getting heavy as she tried to raise her rifle. She fired and the shot went wide, grazing one of the creatures causing it no harm. She dropped the rifle and ran as fast as she could back to Spock.

Seeing him down the hall, she ran right to him. “Spock, we have to run!” She shrieked.

“You saw them?” Spock managed to get out, his fear somewhat calmed knowing she was alive.

He got his answer when he heard the noise down the corridor and saw the creatures slowly lumbering to them. The pair ran at full sprint down the corridor and back to where Hemmer and the others were keeping guard.

Pike and the others had nearly become catatonic by this point, even Hemmer was feeling the oppressive weight of lethargy take him. All that was undone when they heard La’an and Spock screaming down the hall. The sound of their friend’s panicked voices woke Chris, Una and Ortegas from their stupors to see the pair run out of the darkness.

“What the hell’s going on?” Una asked.

“No time to explain!” La’an coughed out. “We found the cause of our problems and they’re chasing us!”

“Captain, we need to escape this deck.” Spock said. “If they catch us, we’re all dead.”

The same blood curling screech came down the halls and everyone there bore witness to the horde begin their emergence from the darkness. Everyone took off in a sprint, hoping to make it to a Jeffries tube or a turbolift before they got caught.

The creatures let out another screech and the running officers all covered their ears in agony as unbelievable pain spread through their bodies. Everyone began to find their heads feel heavy as they found themselves falling to the ground. Some of them still tried in vain to drag themselves to safety as the monsters grew closer.

As Spock tried to do the same, his eyes caught sight of the airlock release console. The console allows instant release of a ship that was docked without going through undocking procedures. At the current state with no ships docked, the console would instead vent the entire deck. It was risky but as Spock could see, there were no other alternatives.

“Everyone hold on to something tight!” Spock yelled at the top of his lungs. He saw the crew all realize his plan. Chris, Erica, Una and Christine all grabbed onto the bulkheads tightly. A second later he felt La’an wrap her arms tighyl around his torso and lock them in place. She gave him a quick nod as he pressed the console and the nearby airlocks opened, the sudden onset of that force quickly gripped the creatures and started to suck them all out into the darkness of space. They tried to hold on as best as they could, trying to strike their claws into the floor to gain a foothold but it was pointless. They all slowly lost grip and got sucked out into space.

But their crew wasn’t going much better. The force had been so great that the crew was struggling to hold on themselves. Spock could see everyone straining themselves to the max to hold one. La’an too was losing her grip. But there was still one of those creatures who was still hanging on.

It tried to scream but no noise came out. Meanwhile Spock could feel La’an’s grip on him loosing. He couldn’t risk readjusting himself since one hand needed to be on the console to close the airlocks. He just prayed that the creature lost its grip before La’an.

The creature kept sliding more and more as it tried to readjust its grip but continuously failing. As it reached the edge of the airlock, La’an’s grip broke and she flew away from Spock. Acting on instinct, Spock quickly closed the airlock down. The action crushed the creature spilling its blood all over the door as La’an dropped out of the air and crashed down less than half a meter from the airlock entrance.

The crew all took a second to recover as Spock dashed from the console to La’an. He rolled her over onto her back exhaling a breath of relief when he was that she was still breathing and conscious.

“Perfect timing Spock.” La’an whispered out with a sweet smile, one that brought a similar smiled to Spock’s face.

Everyone had gone straight to sickbay to make sure whatever affects those creatures had done was gone. And to listen to Spock’s revelation of what they had just faced.

“The Klingons have a word for these creatures. They call them soul takers. They are monsters mythically believed to inhabit the Klingon underworld Gre’thor. They possess a strong psionic ability to influence those around them, causing them to turn on each other, become violent and eventually drain away their will to live.”

The crew continued to sit in silence listening to Spock. “According to Scientist T’Ran’s logs, he bought one of these creatures from a trader in the Orion sector illegally. He began several experiments on it trying to figure out how to weaponize its abilities. And he succeeded. His experiment allowed the creature to reproduce until their numbers were so great that they overwhelmed the crew, causing them to all give up on life and lay down to die.”

“My God.” Nurse Chapel whispered. “So what happens now.”

“Thanks to our encounter, we now know their bio-signature.” Una explained. “We swept Enterprise and the Shran. There are no more of them left.”

“And now that this horror fest is over, I hereby order everyone to take the day off.” Chris smiled. “Starfleet is sending an escort and I’ll request a command crew to fly us in.”

Everyone mumbled in agreement as they all dispersed back to their own personal recovery. Spock and La’an quietly made their way back to her quarters. The pair ended up laying down on the bed with La’an tucked nicely into Spock’s chest.

“I’m glad that’s over.” La’an admitted. “Now that those creatures are gone, I feel better. Like a weight has been lifted.

“I believe I feel the same way.” Spock agreed. “Those creatures may not have been able to affect us as hard as the rest of the crew but the experience was definitely not pleasant.”

La’an nodded silently and laid her head back down as Spock ran his hands through her now unbraided hair. “Is something else bothering you?” He asked.

“I guess… I can’t stop thinking about my adoptive family back on Earth.” She admitted. After our conversation earlier today, my mind has been on them a while.”

“When was the last time you spoke with them?” He asked.

“Maybe a year or two before the Klingon War.” La’an admitted. “With everything that happened after the Battle of the Binary Stars, I just never found time to talk to them since.”

“We have that time now.” Spock offered.

La’an raised up from spot. “Spock… I haven’t spoken to them in so long…”

Spock didn’t let her finish. “If they are like any true parents, then they truly love you no matter how much time has passed… and no matter if you are their biological child or the one they chose to bring into their home as raise like one of their own.”

Spock’s words were the push she needed. La’an went to her console and quickly checked them time back to her adoptive family’s town. Seeing it was midafternoon, she took a deep breath, felt Spock’s reassuring hand on her back and sent the call request.

The Enterprise was currently at High Warp en-route to its next mission. A distress call had been received from the research vessel U.S.S. Shran a few days ago and Enterprise had been ordered to respond.

As the ship neared the distress signal, CPT Pike gave out his orders. “Yellow Alert, raise shields and drop us out of warp.”

“Aye sir.” Lt Ortegas acknowledged as she pushed a few buttons on her console and the ship reverted to impulse speeds, the viewscreen filled with numerous asteroids from the nearby field

“Pull up the Shran, maximum magnification.” Pike ordered.

The viewscreen zoomed in to the Shran. From a cursory look, it was clear the vessel’s main power was offline and the ship’s thrusters had misfired, sending it into a slow spin.

“Uhura?” Pike asked as the young cadet tried hailing them.

“No response sir.” She answered. “Their array is active, but I can’t reach anyone sir.”

“Anything on scanners?” Pike asked to Spock.

“The vessel’s main power is indeed offlin though her distress beacon is still active.” Spock said as he read through the sensor records. “I cannot detect any life signs from the ship sir.”

“No life signs at all?” La’an asked, a small hitch in her voice that only Spock seemed to pick up on.

“There is some kind of interference affecting our life sign sensors.” Spock added. “I cannot ascertain the source but until we compensate for it, life signs detection will be unreliable. Furthermore, we will be unable to beam to and from the Shran until this anomaly is compensated for.”

“How many personnel are listed as serving on the Shran?”

“26 sir.” La’an answered before anyone else could. “Standard complement for her.” She added hastily.

“Any other vessels in range?” Una asked.

“I am not detecting any energy signatures within sensor range, nor am I picking any warp or ion signatures.” Spock answered.

“We should head on over then and figure out what happened.” Pike commanded. “Spock, assemble an away team to recover any data and see if we can get the ship operational again.

“Captain I recommend I take LTs Noonien-Singh and Mitchell along with two security personnel and two engineers.”

Pike nodded and Spock gave the same to the two senior officers he’d requested. Silently, they all departed the bridge and headed for the Shuttle Bay.

Spock had sent Mitchell ahead to prep the teams and make sure everyone was set for what they could possibly encounter.

Spock had waiting behind with the slower moving La’an. He inched closer to her. “Is something bothering you LT?” He asked softly.

“I’m fine.” La’an said in her typical cold manner but Spock could feel the tension radiating off her.

“LT… La’an.” Spock said in a much kinder tone. “I know our relationship is somewhat new and perhaps you don’t feel comfortable yet opening up to me. But I can feel your discomfort.”

Spock took a pause to find the right words. “If you don’t feel comfortable telling me I will understand. You and I are both very private people but if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

La’an had wanted to snap at Spock for pushing on the subject. However, she quickly caught herself, took a deep breath and remembered her sessions with Dr Sanchez about keeping her anger in check. “You’re right I’m not interested in discussing this right now… But thank you for your concern. Perhaps… after the mission we can talk.”

Spock nodded in agreement as they kept walking, their minds now fully focued on the mission.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The away team took one of the larger shuttles over to the Shran. The first thing they noticed was how dark the hallways were. The team turned on the lights of their phase rifles. Spock pulled out his tricorder and began scanning.

“Anything?” La’an asked. “Unclear at this time.” Spock answered. “I am getting some data but anyting further than a few meters gets corrupted.”

“Alright everyone, weapons at the high ready until we sweep the ship.” La’an ordered. “LT CDR Spock and I will clear from the armory to the bridge. Mitchell, take the engineers and my security team. Check the Science Labs to Engineering. Make sure to check your targets before you fire. There may be survivors we still haven’t found.”

The teams then split and headed off on their assignments. Spock and La’an moved silently through the halls of the ship with their weapons on at the high ready as they swept the corridors.

Their first stop was the ship’s armory. While only a research ship, the Shran till had a small arsenal of Phasers, Torpedoes and enough small arms for the crew.

“What have you found?” La’an asked as she started scrolling through the console.

“None of these weapons have bee drawn.” Spock observed. “Furthermore none of them seem to have been fired recently.”

“That matches with what I’m seeming here.” La’an gestured for him to come close. “See here. None of the ship’s torpedoes have been launched and the phaser array hasn’t been turned on in weeks.”

Spock took a second to assess the data before commenting. “This seems to imply that whatever caused the ship to be disabled didn’t come from outside.”

“I agree. Nothing we’ve seen makes me believe the ship was taken by force.” La’an concurred. “Perhaps the bridge might hold more answers.”

The pair then left the Armory and headed for the bridge, meanwhile Lt Mitchell was currently in Engineering, working with the away team to get the ship back online, though without much success.

“God Damn it.” Jenna cursed as she smacked the console.

“What’s wrong sir?” Ensign Lance asked shining his light on the console Mitchell was working on.

“I can’t get any power to flow through the ship. The drive is still operational and the ship’s got plenty of power but I can’t route it anymore.” Mitchell explained. “Based on what I’m seeing, it looks like the EPS grid has been cut in several places.”

“But the EPS grid on a ship is massive.” Lance countered. “How can you cut the entire network off.”

“The entire network isn’t down.” Mitchell answered. “But certain relays have been cut off. I can shunt power to certain consoles, and we could easily open or lock doors. But getting main power online throughout the ship, that’s not happening.”

Ensign Lance sighed as he left his superior to fiddle some more at the console. He kept sweep through Engineering looking for anything else but after a few minutes, he’d gotten bored. “Hey sir, got a kinda off topic question for you.”

“Well there’s not much I can do right now without the relays so shoot.” Mitchell said.

“You notice anything different between LT CDR Spock and LT Noonien-Singh?” Lance asked.

“Anything in particular?” Mitchell asked.

“They’ve been acting a little differently.” Lance commented. “Like… less intense.”

“Less intense?” Mitchell snorted. “Ensign, those two don’t even know how to be anything but intense.”

“That’s my point!” Lance replied. “I mean they’re still terrifying but… But I’ve seen them spending a lot of time together… Off duty.”

“Lance is right.” Crewman Zuniga jumped in. “I’ve seen them together multiple times in the rec rooms.”

“Oh really?” Mitchell quipped playfully; she was always a sucker for ship gossip. “And how many PADDs were strung out between them?”

“None.” Zuniga answered with a smile.

The words put shock onto Mitchell’s face. And now she was not going to let this go. “When did this start?”

“Shortly after we took down the Serene Squall.” Ensign Lance provide the answer.

This fit in with what Jenna had heard. From what she’d gotten out of Erica following the Serene Squall mission, Spock and La’an had been the only two crew to avoid capture and they’d been pivotal in convincing CPT Angel to abandon the Enterprise and let their crew fall into Starfleet custody. According to Erica, the two had been somewhat loose on the details on what had happened on the bridge and why Spock’s (now former) fiancé T’Pring had been present.

Jenna smiled as she thought of Erica and Chapel’s reactions when she told them this juicy bit of gossip. Those two girls had always had the leg up on her when it came to ship gossip. Today she’d be the one with the juicy story.

She was pulled from her revelry when her communicator chirped. “Team 1 to Team 2, how copy?”

“Solid copy Team 1.” Mitchell replied after opening the device, her professional persona back in charge.

“Status of the ship’s power grid.” La’an asked. “Would love to not have to tow this ship home.”

“Wish I was a miracle worker here.” Mitchell responded with a sigh. “The ship’s EPS relays are FUBAR. No way we’d be able to shunt power from the core to the impulse engines or nacelles. Looks like it’s a tow job.”

“Any sign of the crew?” Spock now asked over comms.

“Negative sir.” Mitchell answered. “We’re about to move to the crew quarters and begin the sweep. What about you both?”

“Negative LT.” Spock replied. “We’ve yet to encounter any survivors nor have we found any bodies.”

“Let’s hope we find them in the crew quarters then.” Mitchell added and she slipped her bag onto her back and rounded up her team for the crew quarters sweep.

At the same time, Spock and La’an departed the bridge to meet up with the second team. La’an could see as they traversed the decks that Spock’s mind was not 100% with her.

“Spock.” She said to break the silence. “What’s bothering you.”

“The fact that we haven’t encountered the crew yet is… concerning.” Spock answered.

“But it’s more than that.” La’an continued for him, apprehension growing in their voices.

“Not only are they gone, but there is also no trace as to what happened.” Spock continued with his assessment but La’an could hear the fear in his voice. “The shuttles are still here, no record of transporter usage, no weapon signatures nor bodies.

La’an felt herself shiver as she saw where he was taking her. “Something hit this ship, something fast and something they weren’t prepared for.”

Spock nodded in agreement. He began. “Perhaps…”

But their conversation was interrupted by a blood curling scream. La’an knew that voice. It was Jenna Mitchell. The two sprinted in the direction of the scream, weapons raised and set on fire.

They arrived to see Jenna Mitchell hyperventilating outside the door to one of the crew quarters, staring at what was inside.

The pair turned see what she had, and they felt their hearts go cold. Inside on the bed of the ship was one of the crew, dead. His body had partially decayed to the point that his skin had greyed, and his eyes were sunken. The sight was a terror to beyond but what truly scared Spock was this; how he was laid out, under the covers as if he was about to go to bed. It looked as if the man had gone to sleep one night and never work up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The crew had flown back to Enterprise on the shuttle with the full away team in tow. They had quickly head off to Sickbay in order to get Mitchell treatment. Spock had managed to calm down Mitchell’s hyperventilating enough to prevent her from fainting. The medical team gave her a sedative to calm her down but even still she was still shaking.

But it wasn’t just her who’d been affected by their encounter. The entire away team waited in dead silence at Sickbay, waiting for the news from Number One and her security sweep of the ship.

Eventually she returned with a somber look on her face. “It’s the same across the ship.” Una said.

“What?” La’an said barely a whisper.

“The entire crew is in their quarters, like they just laid down and died.” Una shuddered at the thought.

“And we’re certain there is no other probable cause for their deaths?” Spock asked.

Una shook her head. “We scanned every crewmember. They all died from the same cause, terminal malnutrition and dehydration.”

“What will we do about the Shran?” La’an asked. “She can’t fly on her own power.”

“We’ll tow her back to Utopia Planitia Shipyards. The crew there will repair her while Starfleet Security conducts the investigation as to the cause of the incident.”

After Una left, Spock’s mind became been preoccupied with his own investigation of the incident. His concerns focused what could’ve caused the crew’s death and if it was possible to have spread to Enterprise at all.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he noticed La’an sitting on the biobed staring at the floor. What stood out to Spock was how she reacted to the nurses. Normally La’an was combative with medical personnel, refusing pain killers and any treatment that wasn’t a vital necessity. But now she didn’t even seem to notice them. She made no protest when they injected her with a hypospray and laid her down on the bed.

Spock waited until the rest of the away team was asleep and the nurses had left the room to approach La’an. He stood beside her bed and softly grabbed her hand and squeezed it. The action brought La’an’s focus back, and she turned her head to him, giving him a small smile.

“I apologize for such a public display of affection, but I can see that this mission has affected you severely.” Spock spoke softly. He knew La’an wasn’t a particular fan of PDA but he felt that perhaps some small touching might help calm her nerves down, and his own.

“It shook us all up Spock.” La’an sighed intertwining her fingers with his.

“It is not a sign of weakness to acknowledge if something has affected you.” Spock prodded as he took a seat beside her.

La’an silently nodded a few times. “I know.” She whispered. “When I heard Mitchell scream, I thought I was prepared for what I was going to see.”

“Indeed. It was… a very disturbing sight.” Spock said turning his head away from her for a second.

“You know Spock.” La’an began. “It also doesn’t make you weaker to admit that you too aren’t do as well as you try and pretend.”

Spock closed his eyes and slide closer to her. “You are starting know me better than many other have. What we saw has seriously affected my emotional control. I am… scared.” He whispered the last part.

“Scared?” La’an slide up on her bio bed a bit. “About what?” “I have seen dead bodies before on battlefield but never like this.” Spock elaborated for her. “The lack of reason for their deaths is a conundrum that I cannot fathom an answer to. And without one, we run the risk of what happened to the Shran affect Enterprise… and affect you.”

La’an pulled Spock’s hand into hers and planted a kiss on his fingers. “Whatever happened hasn’t spread to Enterprise yet. And if it does, we’ll be ready.

Down in the Shuttlebay, all was quiet. After the away team had returned, the bay had been mostly deserted excluding the current on duty guards and the lights turned off. But at that moment, the shuttle the away team took to and from the Shran had one of it’s cargo hatches open up and slowly something began to crawl out of the opening. The bay was dark enough that the guards didn’t notice the creature exit the shuttle and make its way to the Jeffries tubes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Out in the asteroid field as the Enterprise went to warp with the Shran in toe, a small transport emerged from inside one of the larger rocks, its signature having been hidden by the astroids.

Inside the ship was it’s sole occupant, CPT Angel. Angel had been monitoring the Starfleet crew since they’d entered the asteroid field, having been witness to the initial and subsequent boarding as well as the taking of the ship into warp.

“This is really bad.” Pike admitted reading the report in his kitchen/office. “How could this have happened without us knowing about it?”

“Those two have always been quiet about personal matters.” Una replied as she helped Chris clean up the plates from their dinner.

“How the heck could those two have not taken a single vacation day in almost a year?” Chris wondered incredulously. “The Admiral’s breathing down my neck about it.”

“Have you meet our Mr. Spock?” Una asked. “Does the man every take a vacation.”

Chris nodded in agreement. “Same with La’an, our two shore stayers absolutely need to take time off now.”

Una put the last plate in the sink and turned to face Chris. “Did the Admiral actually call you about this or were you just being melodramatic?”

Chris smiled. “He actually did. Apparently Starfleet is getting more concerned with burnout since the Klingon War ended. Lot of fine officers and crewman have been dealing with issue and Command wants Captains to be more alert for the signs. And apparently having two of my senior officers not taking so much as a day of leave in a year is cause of concern now.”

“So...” Una continued. “How do we get them to actually take a vacation?”

Chris put down the PADD and started pacing. Una was right. Both Spock and La’an were workaholics. They’d resist heavily any attempt to force them to take time off work. He remembered back a diplomatic conference and festival they’d attended on the Xindi world of Azati Prime. Whist most of the crew had taken the time to enjoy the Xindi festival, both La’an and Spock insisted on working throughout the entire trip, even after the conference had ended.

They’d both been pacing for a minute before Una stopped and smile slowly crept onto her face. “I know that look.” Chris smirked. “You’ve got an idea.”

“How much do you know about Risa?” Una asked.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

La’an and Spock had arrived on the surface of Risa for their latest mission. According to Captain Pike, Risa was experiencing several glitches with it’s weather control systems and they’d asked for Starfleet help to fix it. However both of them had to admit this mission was odd. First, Risa had several scientists and engineers who helped maintain the tropical weather so why did they need Starfleet’s help. Second, both Chris and Una had already packed them go bags for their mission. Third, La’an was wondering why she was a part of this mission. She was security officer not a scientist, unless of course there was more to the mission than had been revealed.

As they walked in to the main resort, La’an felt like she and Spock were seriously out of place here. In their formal uniforms, they stuck out in comparison to the skimpy swimsuits and leisure attire that the locals wore.

They quickly made their way to the summer resort’s main office. “Excuse me.” La’an spoke to the Risian woman at the desk. “Our commander told us to check in here. LT CDR Spock and LT La’an Noonien Singh from the Enterprise.”

“Give me a second.” The woman said as she typed the names into her PADD. “Ah yes I have you both listed right here.” She reached into her desk and pull out two electronic keys. “Here are the keys to your rooms. Please enjoy your stay.”

Spock gave the woman a quizzical look. “I’m afraid you must be mistaken. We are not guests here. We were supposed to meet someone from the Risian Engineering Corps here in regards to weather control”

The woman gave an equally quizzical reply. “We did have some issues with the weather control a few days ago that caused some storms but it was fixed. Not to worry your reserved room is perfectly functional.”

“Room?” La’an blanched.

“Yes... a room reservation made for a Mr Spock and a Ms Noonien Singh. The reservation was made though the Starfleet comms network.” The receptionist continued.

La’an looked away for a few seconds and Spock could almost see the gears shifting in her head. A second laters he turned back to face the receptionist. “Is there a subspace communicator somewhere here?”

“There’s one in your room.” The receptionist answered.

La’an quickly grabbed the keys as the two of them departed from reception and headed for their room on the third floor. They both entered the rather large and festive room. La’an eyed the room till she found the communicator. She dropped her bag and keyed the comms on. “La’an to Enterprise.”

The video turned on to see Chris and Una in the ready room. “What’s going on here sir? The Risians seem to be under the assumption that we’re here for vacation not to repair their weather control.”

“Did they?” Chris said in the most fake tone possible. “Did I forget to mention that during my briefing to them?”

La’an quickly figured it out. “You lied to us.” She said in a dark tone.

Una raised a finger. “Technically we didn’t lie.” La’an just gave her a look. “Well sure we forgot some stuff.” Una continued. “Look you both haven't take a day off in almost a year. This leave time is an opportunity to decompress and relax.”

“I dont believe this. We don’t need a vacation.” La’an said. “We’re heading back sir.”

“That’s gonna be a problem.” Chris said. “Enterprise already left orbit for Drozana Station. We won't be back for at least a week.”

La’an just sighed and leaned back in her chair feeling dejected. “Think of it this way, you finally get to experience Risian culture for the first time. It’ll be a blast.” Una said as she cut the comm.

La’an briefly considered Una’s words but she was still upset that they’d been deceived in order to get them here. Feeling a little petty, she decided to forgo her mentor’s works open her go bag and pull out her PADD.

“I see they thought of that.” Spock commented as he looked through his bag. “All of my equipment is no longer here. It has been replaced by several articles of clothing one might wear on this planet.”

La’an opened her own bag to confirm Spock’s words. Her bag no longer contained her PADD and spare uniforms but had been replaced with a yoga mat, several swimsuits and sun dress. Chris and Una clearly had thought their plan through. “What now?” She asked.

Spock pondered the question for a moment. “Perhaps we utilize our situation to our advantage.”

“Oh?” La’an asked, clearly intrigued.

“The Captain and Number One clearly believe that we do not take enough time to relax given the lengths to this deception of theirs. If we attempt to avoid this leisure time they will perhaps resort to officially ordering us to take leave. Perhaps if we show them that we are capable of relaxing, they may decide to no longer go to extreme lengths to force us to take leave.”

Spock had outlined his points very logically in La’an opinion. But still it surprised her. Spock was as much of a workaholic as she was and to hear him making a logical argument in favor of actually taking a vacation surprised her. “Perhaps you're right. At the least this will get them off our backs when it comes to our accrued leave days.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Inside their bags had been a sheet of paper with several different activities that apparently Chris and Una had done whist on Risa before. Given that the Captain had apparently reserved adjoining rooms, they decided it would be more efficient if they partook in the activities together.

The first few days included a few hikes into the mountains and a day with a few of the Risian rental floaters to observe the island from the air. One of the most memorable days had to be the day they decided to do powerboarding. The Risians had invented a surfboard with a small engine on the back that would propel the user forward. It had become so popular that Risa even had occasional races around the island.

Today the two of them were out preparing to give the activity a try. Spock had gone ahead and rented them two boards. He set them down just outside the resort as he waited for La’an to come down. 

When she finally emerged, he felt his face flush as he observed her. La’an was currently wearing one of the swimsuits Una had given her, a blue bikini that seems to cover very little of her skin held in pace by a very thin string.

La’an noticed that Spock was staring at her and she started to blush. “This was the least revealing suit that was in my bag, a bag Una packed.” Spock said sheepishly.

“I did not say anything.” Spock defended. “Come on now. Let us head for the water.”

The power boards turned out to be a lot of fun. They had an adjustable speed that could be set for anything from a snails pace to racing speed. The pairs had coasted out onto the ocean. They’d cut the engine and were now just floating in the water, relaxed and without care in the world.

At least until another pair sped by on their boards. The wake they’d created had disrupted La’an and Spock’s calm as it threw them off their boards and into the water.

Spock emerged from the water feeling very annoyed. He saw the pair, two Cardassians as they continued to buzz other beach goers. He briefly contemplated ways to get back when he heard panicked splashing behind him. His first though was that La’an was drowning and he moved to try to help her back onto the power board only to face her resistance when he felt her soft skin agains his chest

“What is it?” He asked feeling perplexed.

“Dont look!” La’an exclaimed as she turned to face away from him. “My... my top is gone... Do you see it?”

Spock realized then that the skin he’d felt had probably been her breast. He turned his body to allow her to preserved her modesty. As he did, his eyes fell on a blue fabric that he realized was her top. Silently he handed it to her and stayed facing away as she tried to get it to stick.

“Spock, can...” La’an began. “Can you please help me?” She asked.

“Of course.” He said softly as he swam to her and helped her retie the knots in her top. Once he was sure it was secure, the two remounted their boards and headed back to shore.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After their last meal at the Captain’s table, they’d thought that no one could beat Pike’s cooking but this Risian dinner cruise was providing to be a true challenger. The Risians had built a restaurant on a small cruiser ship that would go out on the water and serve them food caught right off the deck.

The pair had gotten a seat on the deck and they’d made a meal out of sampling all the choices available. “I find it very fascinating that now in three different cultures, in spite of the invention of matter synthesizers, a great deal of emphasis is still placed on cooking and preparing meals.” Spock commented.

“Three cultures?” La’an asked as she took a bite of squid-like creature on her plate. “Humans, Risians and the first two. Whose the third?”

“Vulcans.” He said. “When one is a guest in a home, it is tradition to be the one that prepares the morning meal.”

La’an smiled as she listened to Spock. The man had usually been very reluctant to speak about his home and culture but after a few days together, he’d opened up a lot and been very willing to share numerous anecdotes about Vulcan life.

She shivered as a breeze rushed over the deck. Tonight she’d chosen to wear the sundress that Una had packed her. It was a beautiful red with a floral pattern and she was slightly jealous that her mentor actually owned something so pretty but right now she was more jealous of Spock who in his Vulcan robes seemed completely unaffected by the cold.

Spock noticed her shiver and stood up from his chair. He slipped the outer layer of the robe off and wrapped it around La’an. She smiled at him. “Thank you but you didn’t have to do that. I imagine as a Vulcan, the cold wind affects you more.”

“That is true but the under layer of my robes will keep me sufficiently warm. That's dress you wear however doesn't seem to provide any protection.” Spock explained. “Furthermore, my understanding on human culture is that in such a situation, it is expected of a man to provide warmth with his jacket or any other kind of garment.”

La’an lowered her face to suppress a blush. She thought about mentioning how that culture trend really only applied to couples who were dating but thought better of it. Spock’s robes were very comfortable and if she was honest, she really appreciated the gesture.

She noticed that their plates were empty and she got up and headed back to the buffet line to fill them up again. As she worked to fill her tray, she noticed two figures approach. She recognized them as Cardassians. Given how they stumbled their approach, she imagined they were drunk.

“Look at this one Macet.” The first Cardassian said as tried to approach La’an. “She looks like she’d be fun.”

La’an did her best to ignore them as she departed with her food and headed back to their little corner of the ship. However the second Cardassian blocked her path. “I think you’re right Mvek.” The second Cardassian said as he leaned into her, so close that La’an could smell the Kanar on him. She tried to back up only to feel the first Cardassian.

“Lets see what kind of fun she it.” The first one said as his hand moved down her back. Before it could get lower, La’an threw her plate at the Cardassian in front of her then slammed her elbow into the man’s chest sending him to the floor. 

The noise attracted the attention of other patrons including Spock who rushed forward to aide his colleague. Both Cardassians recovered quickly from the attack with the first wrapping his arms around La’an as the second took the opportunity to land two smacks to her face.

By then Spock had closed the distance and grabbed the man who punched La’an and threw him across the deck. La’an then head-butted the man holding her.

As Spock approached the man he’d thrown, he was caught off guard when the Cardassian sent a kick into Spock’s face. He quickly recovered, grabbing the man’s leg, pulling him in close and landing a final punch that knocked the first Cardassian out. La’an had followed up her head-butt with a hard right hook that send the second Cardassian to the ground, unconscious.

After the ship docked back the the resort, the pair had returned to their quarters where Spock began the work to clean up the mess that was their faces. Spock had a large bruise above his left eye where the Cardassian had kicked him. La’an meanwhile had several scrapes along with her own eye bruise. Spock had taken one of the rags, dipped it in cold water and was currently wiping off the blood from her face.

“Well that was an interesting dinner.” La’an said.

“Indeed. Perhaps next time we go out we can take effort to avoid interacting with drunk Cardassians.” Spock replied.

“Next time?” La’an asked. “Tonights our last night here. Enterprise returns tomorrow morning for pickup.”

“That is true but...” Spock started, taking a breath before continuing. “But I must admit your presence here has made this vacation very enjoyable. I would very much enjoy the opportunity to try new experiences with you. Perhaps the next time one of us takes leave, the other should accompany them.”

“That idea has real merit Mr Spock.” La’an replied. “I must admit I too was nervous about this encounter but I have too enjoyed our time together and would gladly do it again.”

By now Spock had completed cleaning up her face. He stood and prepared to leave. “Goodnight La’an.”

Before he could leave, he felt her hand wrap around his. “Do you want to stay the night?” She asked, her voice filled with hope that she’d read him correctly.

His answer came when he crashed his lips down on her. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When they’d beamed back aboard, their bruises hadn't fully healed letting Captain Pike and Una get a full display of the damage done during the fight the night before.

“So was the vacation restful?” Una asked worriedly.

“It was quite refreshing” La’an smiled as if her face was covered in bruises and scrapes.

“A very successful vacation indeed.” Spock added, he too ignoring the similar gashes on his face.

The Roci was burning towards the Ring Gate. With the Free Navy conflict ended, the crew had begun taking up security contracts for the new Transport Union, mostly to protect supply ships from pirates. Currently the'd gotten a contract to escort a fleet of colony ships to a new world in the gate network.

Currently it was night time aboard the ship and most of the crew was asleep except Amos whom was on the night shift. After making sure the radar was working properly and would alert them of inbound ships, he'd taken to spending time running some maintenance to keep awake.

As he worked he noticed the distinct sound of magnetic boots clanking up the stairs to the bridge. He turned from his work to see Clarissa Mao, her hair untied and cascading down her shoulders.

"Peaches, you're up late." Amos commented.

She sighed. "My mind won't let me sleep tonight. I figured I'd at least get some work done in the interim."

Amos gave her a smile and handed her a wrench and told her to get started on some of the repairs. He knew better than to pry into what was keeping her up. He never really knew the best way to broach those subjects and Clarissa usually would open up on her often, when she was ready.

They'd been working on repairs for over an hour with very few words between them until finally Clarissa put her tools down and said something that got Amos' attention. "I was dreaming about Julie."

Amos stopped his repair work as she continued to speak. "The last time we spoke was just after her last racing tournament. She and dad got into a big fight before she told us she was leaving for good. I chased her outside."

Tears started to flow from her eyes. "I was so mad at her and I said so many horrible things to her."

Amos walked to her and gently wrapped his hand in hers. He then led her to the nearest chair. He sat down and led her to sit on his lap.

She curled herself up in his chest and kept speaking. "I wish I'd never pushed her away. She died thinking I hated her"

Amos wrapped his arms around her. "But you didn't. And you don't. Plus she was your sister. She knew you loved her"

"She was such a good person. She was the best person in our family." Clarissa said.

Amos began rubbing circles on Clarissa's back. "And if she could've seen what you've done now, she'd feel the same way about you."