Disclaimer: Here's the drill – I don't own Startrek; I don't make any money doing this; I have Starquilter57's permission to use those portions of her universe that intersect with mine – Specifically Selek, T'Mardis and Nebula Galactic appear with her permission. Also while I am an untrained amateur I join with Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman and Will Hayden with this final note: If you are tempted to write Fan Fiction without a disclaimer DON'T. The disclaimer Police will come after you and it won't be fun.

The beginning is the most important part of the work

Plato

Jim sat at the desk in his stateroom. Staring at his PADD was not going to help him complete the todo list. None of the items on it were particularly pleasant to him. Pike had pushed him into the deep end again. His relationship with Ambassador Selek was to be polite, rocky. This project would either bring them closer together or drive them further apart.

To Do:

* Talk w/ Adm. Pike

* Note to self don't grumble about this assignment, much.

* Write up the notes into a paper

* Contact Ambassador Selek

* Contact Ambassador Selek's wife.

Bringing up the research outline on his PADD and linking it to the terminal he set up the link to Admiral Pike.

Pike was sitting in his office, it was late afternoon and he was nearly done with office hours. Archer had conned him into teaching introductory tactics again. Worse, the old goat had leaned on the Institute to appoint him as an editor for its Strategic Studies Review. Archer had said to him the day before, "Chris, we need some new blood in tactics and strategy. Old guys like me need to stop writing, we've been out of the game too long and what we write is published only to be polite to us."

There were several good tacticians in the fleet, but it was hard to get them to contribute anything. He had succeeded in getting two of his best students to at least look at writing articles. He hoped both would do so, but he didn't have any firm commitments. The committee would be meeting in another week to rough out the review. He was afraid that all they would get would be the same tired old submissions from the same tired old retired captains, or worse armchair admirals who thought they were still serving in the fleet.

The com terminal on his desk chimed. "Incoming transmission from James T. Kirk."

This ought to be interesting, Pike thought. Jim is ,likely to be mad. I really dumped this in his lap.

"Computer, accept communication."

"Good afternoon Admiral, I hope I've caught you on a good day."

Thanks Jim, how are things going out there."

"Good, though this survey mission is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Oh, by the way thanks for the new project."

"Jim, I hated doing that too you, but you really do need to pay more attention to education. I hope that you've accepted the challenge."

"After I got over being mad at you, I did come up with an idea that I think has some merit. You know how Nebula Galactic is everywhere. I had this idea that there might be some similarity between the old Suttler's Stores in frontier forts, and also some comparisons between Nebula Galactic and some of the older retailers."

"Jim, that's in interesting idea, do you have an outline or something else written down yet."

"I do. Just a second and I'll send you a copy of it."

Pike set his terminal to split screen the video and Jim's outline.

"Jim that looks good. T'Mardis is a nice lady, with an interesting story. I think she will be very helpful. Let me know if you need any help with research materials."

"Ok.

Pike ended the call and cleared the screen of his terminal

One down, one to go. He wondered how long it would be before he heard from Spock.

TBC