Chapter 2

"A mouse!"

"A mouse"

"Half the ship is in uproar because a mouse escaped from the lab!"

"Captain, …it …it took me by surprise, I didn't expect to see it sitting in my salad"

Kirk sighed; the brief disturbance had flooded adrenalin through his body. As he felt his veins deflate, his bad mood exploded. "You are a star fleet officer, star fleet officers do not scream when they see A MOUSE!"

"Captain really I'm so sorry"

"Captain I believe it was an honest mistake", Dr McCoy had chosen to intervene, Kirk was angry, frustrated and bored a perfect storm for impassioned unreasonableness. Kirk ran his hand through his hair, a quick intake of breath and the calm rational Captain had returned to his position.

"Ok so basically we have a level one rodent alert on the ship" his attempt at humour worked to break the mood, the young ensign risked a small smile. "I can only imagine its escaped from the labs, Spock you know anything about this?"

"I have not been advised of such an event Captain, though it may not have been noted. If you will excuse me I can look further into the matter"

"Thanks, I can live with one mouse, but I'm not in the mood for a plague"

Spock headed towards the doors without further comment. Kirk and McCoy resumed their seats, McCoy scrunching his nose as cold coffee met his lips.

"And life resumes the wild rollercoaster ride that entertains us all"

Kirk giggled, his head shaking slightly.

xxxx

Spock knew he was not needed in the lab, the First Officer of the most prestigious ship in Starfleet did not have responsibility for locating an errant mouse, he had, however, felt the need to leave the rec room. He had alluded to his state of mind, but not his dreams. The Captain was correct in his statement in relation to lack of activity, Spock's mind did appear to be becoming increasingly creative, he found it unnerving. He would have spoken further to Jim, and even McCoy – the distraction had diverted such disclosures.

His mind was circling these thoughts when he walked through the doors and directly into Nurse Chapel.

"Ow!" Chapel had been bumped, none too delicately, directly into a low burning flame. Flinching her hand she ran to grab the medikit before realising the responsible party.

"Could you look where you are going! Goodness me I could have been….Oh Mr Spock I didn't realise it was you"

"I shouldn't think that that would be an excuse for carelessness, are you injured Nurse?"

"What? yes well no …I mean I am"

"You appear confused, I did not realise I had contacted your head as well"

"What?" Chapel paused on realising her repetition. "I mean yes I am injured, but its only minor, it was more a shock than anything painful"

"It appears to a regular occurrence upon the ship today" she peered at him, frowning whilst tending to her hand " there has been an incident in the rec room, a mouse has escaped from the lab"

"A mouse in the house", her grin gained no response from Spock "ummm…ok so you think one is missing"

"Ensign DeNois appears convinced of this, his screaming at lunch appears to have confirmed it"

"Screaming, well that would break the monotony" she continued to rub her hand, the stinging starting to ease "locating missing mice seems to be a little outside the job parameters of a First Officer"

Spock opened his mouth to provide a curt response, hesitated, considered and responded "Nurse Chapel I was placed in the position of investigating the escape or to listen to continued hypotheses in relation to alleged romantic involvements"

"Riley and Rand?"

Spock raised his brow at her knowledge of the event.

"Its all around the ship, I cant see it myself, but it doesn't surprise me – people are restless, inactivity breeds creative, interesting discussion"

"I dispute Nurse that such discussion could be called interesting"

Christine continued oblivious to his comment.

"Besides its part of nature to want things to happen, to want a change to the status quo"

"Human nature Nurse"

"Just nature Mr Spock, we all want things, sometimes we just don't know what we want"