"Lt. Moreau?"
Lt. Marlena Moreau looked up at the sound of that unexpected voice, to find a stranger standing in the doorway of the bio lab. No, not a stranger; it was Lt. Uhura, the Chief Communications Officer. It took her only a second to recognize the dark-skinned woman in the red uniform. "Can I help you?" Moreau was confused; the bridge crew rarely made an appearance in her territory, or so she'd been advised by her predecessor before his transfer. The attractive brunette had only been on board a short while, but couldn't think of a good reason for Uhura to be down here under the current peculiar circumstances.
Before she could finish the thought, however, Uhura slinked into the room. Moreau frowned, distracted; why had her mind chosen that particular verb to describe the way the other woman entered the lab? Because it was the correct one, her mind insisted back to her. The woman moved like she expected people to pay attention when she made an entrance. "Is there something wrong, Lt. Uhura?" Moreau tried again. May as well let the other woman know she knew who she was.
Uhura shook her head, then extended her hand. "We haven't had the opportunity to meet. As the Chief Communications Officer, I consider it one of my duties--and pleasures--to greet newcomers. What with the Halkan situation and the ion storm, this is the first chance I've had."
Moreau took the proffered hand automatically, a tentative smile on her lips, but something about this meeting still felt...off. Why are you being so suspicious, Marlena? she scolded herself silently while Uhura said something about the ship and making friends and landing parties. Lt. Uhura is just trying to be nice.
Right. In the middle of a sensitive mission. Right after landing party duty that had ended...the way it had ended. Moreau was not convinced. "Yes," she said in belated response to Uhura's last inquiry. The woman had been talking while Moreau's suspicious mind wandered. "This is my first starship posting." She paused as something else Uhura had asked finally brought itself to her attention. "I'm sorry, but were you asking if I'd met the captain?"
Uhura nodded, a casual gesture, but Moreau couldn't help but feel a sudden tension, an eagerness the lieutenant was trying to hide, as if the question were more important than it seemed at face value. "No," she replied slowly, trying to puzzle things out. "I haven't reported to him in person yet. I've been trying to get things in order here, the ion storm really tossed things around. I thought Doctor McCoy had him temporarily off-duty? Something about a problem with the transporter?" That last was a blatant attempt to find out more than the speculation that had percolated through the ship.
Uhura nodded seriously, but Moreau would have sworn there was a hint of a self-satisfied smile around her lips as she replied, "Yes, Dr. McCoy thought he should rest. The ion storm affected the transporter, made us all a little...woozy." Her voice was dismissive, but the faint smile was still there. "None of us felt like ourselves when we beamed back from the planet."
"Does Dr. McCoy know why it affected the captain so strongly?" Moreau asked, in spite of herself. He had been the only one not immediately cleared for duty.
Uhura shrugged. "I'm sure he'll be fine. Dr. McCoy assured us he'd be back to his usual self in no time." There. That was definitely a smirk, as if the Lieutenant were enjoying a private joke. "I really shouldn't be down here, but I'm on a break and felt like taking a walk. When I found myself in your territory, I figured it was the perfect time to meet the newest member of the crew."
Plausible, all of it, but still ringing false to Moreau's ears. With the Captain in Sickbay, the mood on the ship was strained. Perhaps, she decided, that was what she was sensing. She squashed her doubts firmly and concentrated on the conversation at hand, determined not to let a temporary sense of jumpiness distort her reactions to what was most likely exactly what it was purported to be: a friendly overture from an old hand to the newest member of the crew. She also determined to ignore the feeling that Uhura wasn't so much wanting to meet her as to size her up. As competition? Another unworthy thought, but one that wouldn't allow itself to be completely banished from her mind.
"Would you like to have a look around?" she offered impulsively, trying to keep her tone civil when all her instincts were screaming at her to hustle the woman out of the room and back to the bridge. "Do you have time?" She hoped the answer would be no.
To Moreau's disappointment, Uhura nodded. "What a wonderful idea. I haven't spent much time down in this part of the ship." There, that was definitely a superior tone in the Lieutenant's voice, Moreau knew she wasn't imagining it. A hint of smugness, as if "this part of the ship" wasn't worthy of her time.
Moreau turned, taking a silent breath to steady herself. She would start the "tour" and then suddenly remember something urgent she needed to finish, get the other woman out of here, and give herself time to process her reactions. To see how much of what she was feeling was due to simple nerves because of her new posting, and how much was real. Just get it over with, Marlena, she told herself, stepping toward the room's long, narrow table and its row of plant specimens. Uhura was behind her, too close; Moreau started to turn, finally trusting her instincts as she saw something in the other woman's hand. But before Moreau could fully identify and react to the threat, it was too late.
With a smile of pure, malicious triumph, Uhura stepped away from Moreau's unconscious form, sprawled haphazardly on the deck. She took the hypospray she had just used and dropped it down the nearest recycling chute. "Sweet dreams, Marlena," she cooed. "Too bad your little specimens emitted some spores that knocked you out. And too bad you won't ever remember anything that happened during the last 12 hours. But I don't need anyone standing in the way of what I want."
She walked out of the room, confident that no one had seen her enter, and equally confident that no one would see her leave. For some reason, this ship had only passive scanners monitoring the interior, and as Communications Officer it was child's play for her to route them away from this room, and equally simple for her to replace them with a judiciously edited set. If anyone wanted them. It would have been easier to just kill the woman, but the last thing Uhura wanted right now was a murder investigation. Moreau wouldn't be able to confirm or deny her actions during that time thanks to the toxin she'd been injected with, and Dr. McCoy would help Uhura cover up any suspicions of foul play once she explained the situation to him–-and promised him the one thing he'd been coveting during his tenure on the Enterprise.
Nurse Christine Chapel.