Bones once said that space was disease and danger wrapped up in darkness and silence.

I didn't take the guy seriously at the time, it's hard for me to take anyone seriously but bones is up there in my top three to never take seriously, right next to cupcake and a certain green blooded hobgoblin.

It's hard to take cupcake seriously, no one does, he's the joke of the ship, everyone knows to bet against him, he's a man with a big ego and nothing to support it.

Spock is also hard to take seriously sometimes, I mean under all that serious Vulcan's don't joke exterior he's always bantering with me, making some sly remark that no one else notices, but I often see his eyes pull and his lips twitch which is pretty much the equivalent of a Vulcan rolling on the floor in hysterics, and it's almost always at my expense, yeah Spock while he has more brains in his little finger than the entire crew of the enterprise, can be pretty hard to take seriously.

And bones I mean the first thing he said to me was that he was planning to throw up on me, I mean seriously, how can I take the man seriously, we won't mention his flair for the dramatic.

But sometimes I take these two the most seriously...bones and Spock that is, not cupcake, I don't ever take him seriously...never.

But Spock and bones yeah I take them seriously, anyway, disease danger, death...whatever,

So this is one of those moments when I should be taking them both seriously, but that's just impossible.

It's just been one of those days you know.

We lost one too many people, the peace treaty wasn't sighed and we were moments from having our asses blown to hell. Narrowly escaping death and somehow being hit with it simultaneously.

You know just because none of my immediate friends died, it still hurts, I still feel responsible, I guess eighteen isn't too bad, but every loss eats away at my soul a little more, one of them was the guy down in engineering, I think he was one of cupcakes mates actually, the one that used to get Scotty that illicit ale...yeah and the new kid, I think he was hanging out with Chekov, he'd only been on bored two months, barley nineteen.

So I mean we escaped, but let's face it, it was pretty much a blood bath, not so much how many died...it was just horrific, hey it must be to get Spock to get drunk...with intention

Anyway so here we are sitting on the observation deck, just the three of us, and between us we've consumed nearly a whole bottle of ale and fourteen mars bars.

So were all drunk, even Spock... on mars bars I mean the guy nocks back six shots without effect and half a mars bar and he's of his face. Anyway that in itself is a glaring indicator that he's not ok with what happened, and the fact that bones who really does like Spock hasn't fought with him all night is a sure bet that he's not ok, but me, I'm fine, I have to be, I'm the captain.

Bones is asleep, drooling on the floor, like a baby, Spock isn't asleep but he's afraid to move, in case he laughs or something, see how can I take mister stoic and captain drool seriously, only I am, this is the most serious it gets.

As for me, I'm looking out at the black cold and somewhat lonely, even though my two best mates are three feet away...darkness, and all I can think is, bones is right, I mean so is Spock. Spock says space is fascinating. And it is, most days those burning balls of gas, arrays of colour or just black, various rocks, some with life, some with life extinguished, all of it passing us by it is fascinating, but on days like this I lean more towards Bonse's view, it's just disease and danger wrapped up in darkness and silence.

And thats depressing.