in all, Kirk's brain allowed him nearly twelve hours of relaxation before it kicked back into gear. He fidgeted enough that McCoy finally woke, gave him the evil eye - or more like, in his case, the evil eyebrow - and got up to take a shower. Kirk knew without having to look that waking McCoy early meant that part of his water rations were going to be used for a long, hot shower. That didn't bother Kirk since the hot shower would go a long way toward alleviating McCoy's bad mood.

Moving to his replicator, he made sure coffee would be ready when McCoy came out after he removed his own cup. Sipping the hot brew, Kirk began pacing as he sorted through his thoughts.

If this was a serious attempt to broker peace, there were literally thousands of beings more qualified to act as a go-between in both experience and temperament. He scowled at himself. He was slipping. Ulterior motives should have been one of the first things to come to his mind instead of the inconvenience.

Despite past threats to spend several hours in the shower, McCoy rarely spent even five minutes. Towel wrapped around his waist, he went straight to the waiting cup of coffee, drinking half before looking at the still-pacing Kirk.

"So, what the hell has you restless this damn early when neither of us have to be on duty?"

"You."

"Me? I beg to differ. I was happily sound asleep until someone woke me up."

Kirk made an impatient gesture with his coffee, nearly sloshing it out of the cup.

"Not anything you did, Bones. What you said last night about them picking me for this job "

McCoy picked a chair and sat down, still nursing his coffee.

"No offense to you, Jim, because you have shown you can side-step with the best of them, but this sounds like using a cannon to hunt pigeons. For a ship the size of ours to be pulled for something like this, there's got to be something more involved they aren't telling you. That's just my opinion, of course."

"Your opinion agrees with my intuition, Bones."

Finishing off his own coffee, Kirk took a moment to gather his thoughts before starting his log recording.

Captain's Log - Stardate 2262.255

Ever since Bones made a remark about the higher-ups possibly having ulterior motives, I can't stop thinking about it. Why would they send us? Is this an elaborate assassination attempt? Or, since our crew is both highly profitable and very popular, is it a mission set up for us to fail to take some of the shine off?

I need to pull our core group together to discuss this. Maybe I'm being paranoid and putting too much thought into this, but my guts are saying we've got a serious problem.

As Kirk ended the recording, McCoy nodded his approval.

"Any time that you've ignored that inner paranoid voice of yours, we've all regretted it. You may not want my opinion, but here it is anyway. Call the meeting for as soon as Alpha shift lets off. You aren't going to get any rest until we hash this out and I'm not spending our downtime watching you fret and fume."

Snorting at the way McCoy phrased it, Kirk considered the advice for a moment before nodding.

"You're right. The sooner, the better."

Striding to the ship's intercom, he activated the device.

"Attention. Commander Spock, Lieutenant Commander Scott, Lieutenants Uhura, Sulu and Chekov : report to the Command level briefing room at the end of Alpha Shift. Kirk out."

McCoy got to his feet again, starting to dry off again as he gestured to the bathroom.

"Go get cleaned up and I'll have us something to eat ready by the time you finish. Don't need to try and listen to you over a growling stomach."

"That's Scott's stomach that growls, not mine."

"Wrong. Your stomach growls, Scotty's stomach roars."

Laughing, Kirk conceded that and headed for the shower. After taking another minute to dry off, McCoy tossed the towel into a chair and grabbed a pair of pants, slipping them on as he debated what to replicate. First thing was more coffee. McCoy wasn't going to fool himself and believe that there would be any more relaxation until after the meeting.