This was inspired by a question posed to me by my friend before class. I blame him entirely.

I own: Stacy Komack, that Andorian dude, Ensign Ricky (remember him?), Nurse Tea, and half of Yeoman Rand. Specifically her uterus.

Stacy Komack grinned. She had no technical rank in the Starfleet system, but still enjoyed wearing the blue shirt of Science officers. As a philosophy undergraduate gaining her masters in sociology, she was traveling to New Vulcan to work on her thesis. She had no idea what it would be, only that it would pertain to the origins of many of the Vulcan traditions that were unique to Vulcan. In the meantime though, she was bored. And what better way to amuse a bored philosophy major? Why, by asking the crew questions of the ethical dilemma kind! She cackled gleefully as she settled down in her quarters with a mostly blank notebook and got to work.
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Her first stop was in the Medical bay. She found Nurse Chapel documenting and politely cleared her throat. Nurse Chapel looked up and quickly put a smile on her face when she saw who it was. "Miss...Komack, wasn't it?" She asked.
Stacy laughed. "Please, call me Stacy," she opened her notebook and looked at the found the appropriate scenario before continuing, "So...I have a question."
Nurse Chapel looked confused when she saw the notebook come open, but gamely answered, "Certainly. Is it a medical question or a question about the ship?"
Stacy grinned widely. "It's the best kind- a philosophical one!" At Nurse Chapel's confused look, she waved a hand. "I was originally a philosophy major. Anyway- what if you were working in a hospital, not on a starship, and you had 3 patients with lawyers for relatives. You're alone, for some reason, and your 3 patients start having respiratory issues. One is 12 and is choking. One is a 90 year old who's having a heart attack and is currently not breathing (for some reason.) One is a 36 year old who was stung by a bee and is having a severe allergic reaction to it. Her throat is swollen shut. Who would you help first and why?"
Nurse Chapel's eyes widened comically when she heard the situation. "I would...Oh my! I would save the woman who's having the allergic reaction first, because she's the one in the most trouble. The man is old and he would be at the end of the list of priorities. I would hope the child knows how to perform the Heimlich maneuver on himself, but if he doesn't, I'd tend to him next, and finally use the defibrillator and CPR on the old man."
Stacy looked pleased, "Well, that certainly shows you have ruthlessness it takes to be a nurse! Congrats, you just got two lawsuits on your hands from the 12 year old's family and the 90 year old *woman's* family."
Nurse Chapel hung her head as she heard this diagnosis of her skills. "I'm not ruthless...." she mumbled unhappily. Stacy stood up and patted her on the back. "It's OK, Nurse Chapel, I specifically made these questions to have no answer that wouldn't result in something like this. I doubt that would be the real outcome in real life. Now, do you know where Dr. McCoy is? I'd like to talk to him, and I know you've got a lot to document."
Nurse Chapel smiled, a smile that was slightly tinged with evil, and pointed to a closed door at the other end of Sickbay before continuing her work with a sigh.
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Stacy knocked on the closed door and waited for a response. It wasn't long in coming.
Dr. McCoy gruffly told her to enter, and she stepped into his office. She stood in the doorway and asked him if she could ask a brief question. McCoy gave Stacy an odd look, and nodded. She smiled the same smile she'd used on Nurse Chapel and asked him the same question. McCoy's answer took Stacy completely by surprise. He replied in the same gruff tone that it would be illegal for him to be alone on an unit, thus rendering the question void. He also informed her that he wanted her out of his office now, since she was just going to waste his time with pointless questions. Stacy muttered, "Interesting man. I like him," as she gave a cheery wave and went to find more crew members.
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Stacy's next trip was to Engineering where she found Scotty working on the paperwork that went with being Chief Engineer. Oddly enough, he was doing it sitting on one of the many tubes criss-crossing the bulk of the underbelly of the Enterprise. Stacy tried repeatedly to catch Scotty's attention before finally giving a loud whistle, Pike-style. Scotty looked up at that and hailed her. "Aye lassie, what can Ah do for ya?" he asked.
Stacy held up her notebook. "Just a quick question for you Mr. Scott."
"Aye, fire away."
"So, picture this," she began, "You've sent Yeoman Rand- who's carrying triplets- Ensign Ricky, Nurse Tea, Captain Kirk and..." Here Stacy's question got a little tricky. She had heard of most of the people mentioned from her father or her friends, but she wanted to add one more person. Her eyes cast around Engineering before settling on someone. "And that one Andorian dude", cue point to said Andorian, "down to a planet. They're in deep shit, to put it bluntly, and your transporters are malfunctioning. You can only save two of them in the amount of time you have. Who do you save and why?"
Scotty pursed his lips and let out a whistle of his own. "Well now, that's quite the pickle you've given me there." He thought for a moment, and said, "Ah'd get that wee one, that one who's so good with the transporters- Chekov, that's the one- to come fix them for me."
Stacy smiled. "Thank you Mr. Scott. That was a most...odd answer. I can see you've got paperwork to do, so I'll leave you alone and go find out how much more time I have before we reach New Vulcan."
Scotty nodded. "Aye, you go have fun practicin' your tricks on someone else lassie. An' good luck on New Vulcan."
Stacy gave Scotty a thumbs up before leaving Engineering and heading to the bridge.
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Once on the bridge, she headed straight for where Lt. Uhura sat manning the communicators. Stacy surveyed the only other woman on the ship that was black and waited to be noticed. It didn't take long.
"Can I help you with something Miss Komack, or do you just want to stare some more?" Uhura asked.
"No need to be so grumpy! I just wanted to ask you a quick question- besides, I'm sure hearing nothing at all is getting pretty boring," Stacy replied.
Uhura nodded grudgingly. "Yeah, it's pretty boring when we get tagged for routine missions like this," she rolled her shoulders back before continuing, "but knowing our luck, something big will appear and shake things up a notch."
Stacy made a small noise of agreement. Steering the conversation back to her original mission, she said, "So, about that question...I promise it won't take up much of your time."
Uhura rolled her eyes at Stacy. "You've got a very one track mind, don't you?" she sighed, "OK, shoot. What's this burning question?"
Stacy scanned her notebook for a moment before asking, "If you were doing your job one night," at Uhura's dark look she hastily added, "that's not intended to be a slur!! Just if you were on duty for some reason at night," she continued, "and intercepted a very compromising piece of information- one that's very very confidential and would cause many problems for everyone if you were to reveal this information, would you?"
Uhura blinked. "Does said information directly impact the crew?"
Stacy thought for a second, before answering, "Nah. It's a love note from one planet to another planet. The heads of these planets are carrying on a torrid affair, only they're both married and cheating on their spouses/boyfriend/girlfriend of the the first affair."
Uhura's answer was immediate. "You read far too many romance novels set in space. Don't you know the historical ones are so much better? Anyway, no, I wouldn't reveal it. Well, maybe secretly to the tabloids." Just as Stacy was about the defend her beloved romance novels, the console in front of her crackled. Uhura made a shoo-ing motion as she began to do her job.
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Stacy wandered next over to the science station where she found Mr. Spock monitoring whatever his console showed- she didn't understand it and didn't really care. Draping herself over his shoulders, she gave him a hug.
"Miss Komack. As a sociologist going to New Vulcan precisely to study my people's behaviors, you of all people should know that Vulcan's have an aversion to touch. I must insist you cease your ridiculous actions."
Stacy frowned and instead plopped down at the next station over. "Commander Spock, you're no fun," she whined.
Spock looked at her impassively. "Miss Komack, I fail to see how I am 'no fun', but I shall not contradict you."
"Spock, Spock, Spock," Stacy chided, "you make being fun sound like something bad. Anyway, I have a question. I'm sure you'll appreciate it for it's self-searching worth." Spock arched an eyebrow at that. "Self-searching worth Miss Komack?"
Stacy waved her hand dismissively. "Bah. Anyway, what if you could bring your mother and your planet back to life, but you had to sacrifice yourself and everyone on the Enterprise to do it, would you?"
Spock closed his eyes and appeared to be counting to twenty. When he had finished, he opened his eyes back up. "To bring back my dead planet and my mother are my greatest wishes Miss Komack. If I were required to die for this to happen, then so be it. I would gladly do it. But I would not damn the rest of the crew, many of whom I've grown close to, just so I could bring the dead back to life." He paused, and if one looked very closely, one would be able to distinguish a faint smirk, and said, "Besides, I'm sure your father would be very displeased if I were to kill you in my vain attempt at resurrection."
Stacy smirked right back. "Well Mr. Spock, that was quite enlightening." Standing up, she clapped him on the shoulder and added, "You're right about my father- daddy would be furious." Waving goodbye, Stacy went to talk to Captain Kirk next.
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Captain Kirk sat regally in his Captain's chair doing, what else, paperwork. Stacy pouted when she saw that he too was engaged with paperwork and wondered if everyone on the entire ship had paperwork to do. Still, this had evolved beyond killing time on the voyage and more into a personal mission of sorts. "Captain~" she sang when she was by his chair, "may I have a word with you?"
Kirk looked up from his PADD. "Why certainly. You're Admiral Komack's daughter, Stacy right?" When she nodded, he grinned. "I didn't know the Admiral had such a pretty daughter."
Stacy blushed, "And one that's well informed Captain. I won't fall for your tricks."
Kirk laughed. "I never use any tricks!"
Stacy laughed too. "As if I'll believe that. Captain Kirk, would you mind indulging me in a pastime of mine? I promise it won't take up much time. Just a minute or two."
Kirk smiled at her, turning on all his charm. "What exactly are we talking about? I can promise you, I last much longer than a minute or two in bed."
Stacy blushed harder and lightly smacked him on the arm. "No! Besides, daddy's so old fashioned, he'd probably expect you to at least take me to dinner. Or lunch. Or to a movie....Well, that's beside the point. All I want to know is: you had to give orders that you knew would send yourself, your crew, and your ship to certain death, but would save a galaxy, would you do it? What if you had to destroy the entire galaxy that included Earth and your ship to save the universe?"
Kirk paled. "Strange pastime you have there Stacy." Forcing a laugh, he said, "I would do it. The needs of the many and all the jazz. Of course, I'd see if there wasn't a way around it. After all, I am James T. Kirk, legendary badass."
Stacy noted his response in her notebook. "I didn't mean to touch any nerves Captain. But, you know, philosophy major and all." Giving him a quick hug, she stepped away from his chair. "Well Captain, I believe you have paperwork to do, just like everyone else I've talked to." At his look, she added, "I've been interviewing your senior staff. Bye!" With her last words, Stacy ran off to the pilot/navigation station to talk to her last two tar- no, wait, vict- no, people on her list. That's what they are.
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Giving Chekov the same over the shoulder hug she'd given Spock and ignoring his sudden "Gah!" she nuzzled him happily. "You're so cute!" she exclaimed, ignoring his reddening face, and Sulu's sudden laughter-cough. "Anyway, since I've been quizzing the rest of the crew, and you two are joined at the hip anyway, I have a question."
Sulu indignantly cried, "We are not joined at the hip!" but Stacy just waved the protest away. "Yes you are, everyone knows it. Anyway- about my question. Sulu, if If you had to pilot into a certain death situation, one that would completely and utterly destroy everyone on board this ship, but could save a galaxy from destruction, would you? There's no way to avoid certain death for everyone on board, mass evacuation or not."
Turning to a very red Chekov, she asked, "If you had to navigate the situation I just outlined to Lt. Sulu, would you?"
The two friends were quiet for a long moment. It was Sulu who spoke first.
"I would do my best to avoid condemning the entire crew to death, but if need be, I would do it."
Chekov nodded his agreement. He was still too embarrassed to speak.
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Stacy sat in her room, compiling her data gathered from the mini-test she'd just administered. The results were hardely surprising to her, but the overall experiment left her happy knowing that Starfleet's flagship was crewed by an excellent group of people.

God, Scotty's accent was a bitch to write. That's why Chekov didn't have any lines. XD

I threw in a little self-reference. Guess which one it is and review! You'll get...Well, I'm really busy, so you'll get the satisfaction of making me proud! =3

-wanders off to go sleep-