Because she was restrained, Christine was not allowed to watch as the frigate went into orbit around earth. She'd been away for many years and was resentful that this magical sight, something that no terran space explorer tired of no matter how many times they'd seen it, was denied to her.
Her containment cell was small. It had a bed, sink, toilet, replicator which appeared to be controlled by a keycard, and a com unit with a screen on the wall. She had been in her cell for only about an hour when the com unit buzzed and three familiar faces appeared on the video screen.
She snickered to herself silently at the flat two dimensional rendering of these faces she'd known so well for so long. Did they think that denying inmates holographic imagery was really punishment? She looked upon Kirk's angry eyes, McCoy's concerned ones, and then on to Spock. Spock's face was placid, completely unreadable. Damn, he was sexy though. She steeled herself against those inevitable butterflies stirring up deep beneath the waistband of her orange prison jumpsuit.
She thought, yes this is punishment. It was punishment to be denied looking at the curve of his ear, the angularity of his high cheekbones. Perhaps it was worse punishment than not being able to look upon the blue orb known as earth as she had descended into San Francisco.
Captain Kirk spoke first.
"Christine, are you guilty of these charges? Explain yourself!"
Christine looked for the boyish manner, the twinkling eyes, something recognizable. It was not there.
"Captain, I have spoken to no one. I do not know what I am charged with," Christine stated.
Kirk fired back quickly.
"Dr. Chapel did you or did you not enter the Goleea Research Facility and discharge an EMP?"
"Sir, I do not understand. I have not been briefed on the charges. I have seen no lawyer. I cannot respond to you. I need answers myself before I can provide any assistance to you."
Kirk made a movement like he was going to rise from the chair.
His voice maintained its hard even tone, "Doctor, I granted you a leave of absence. You said you wanted to do imperative research off ship. Although this was an unusual request, I granted it because I have always held you in high esteem. I pulled strings with all the brass to allow you to go. Your repayment for my kindness…Well frankly, you're repayment sucks. I have seen the evidence, Chapel. If you weren't framed in some way… Well, your career is over. Your life outside of prison is over.
Spock started slowly, "Doctor Chapel, if the charges are correct what you have done has shamed Starfleet and the Enterprise. You have also dishonored yourself. I want to understand. Please explain. Why did you do this? If you have not read the charges, I'm sure you don't realize that you are being accused of breaking the prime directive. How is it possible that such an experienced officer as yourself could do such a thing? It is not logical."
Christine stood up.
"Prime directive! Don't give me this prime directive bull crap! If it wasn't for the prime directive I would never have had to go and free the clones. There wouldn't have been any god damned clones to free! Shut up with your freaking prime directive shit! You god damn hypocritical logic driven shit face! None of you know anything about what I've done, or why I've done it. Bureaucrats never know anything about morality. Why don't you just go to hell?"
Spent by her tirade, Christine sat back down. She knew that her anger was misdirected but she really didn't care. Spock's utterance of that most hated term 'Prime Directive' had pushed all the wrong buttons. She did regret that in her anger, she had revealed too much information.
Spock calmly responded, "Dr. Chapel, your extensive use of scatological terminology is most perplexing and inaccurate. I sonic showered at 0630 hours and am quite sure that there is no fecal matter on my face, not that I'm in the practice of ever having excrement on the outer parts of my body. Also, since hell is a fictional place to Vulcans, I doubt that I could find a way to visit there. I also find your use of profanity distasteful and unbecoming of an officer in Starfleet.
Shit, Christine thought. Spock loves logic so much that he actually uses the word scatological when referring to shit. That's funny. It would be sort of endearing if he hadn't already condemned her.
McCoy finally spoke his turn.
"Chris," Doctor McCoy uttered softly. "Tell me about the clones."
Christine's head jerked upright. She detected not just concern but sadness in his demeanor. Yes, she had already said way too much.
"Oh Lenny, I wish I could explain it all to you. I don't want to disappoint you. You're my mentor, my friend, almost the father I never had. I'll make all of you understand. But I need information first. I also need your promise that what I tell you is not conveyed to the authorities until the proper time." Christine stopped talking.
For a moment the three two-dimensional heads on the screen quieted as well.
Kirk responded, "I already had to pull strings to get this live feed, Doctor Chapel. We will discuss this matter amongst ourselves and get back to you at a later time."
The screen darkened.
Damn! Christine replayed the words live feed in her head. Life feed meant the Enterprise was less than two weeks away. She bitterly thought that if it was McCoy or his precious Spock in this predicament, the Enterprise with Kirk at the helm, would already be in orbit around the earth.
