"Well, I think I'll let you go this morning," Bones told a barely awake Mariella.

She rubbed her eyes and replied, "Where exactly am I supposed to go?"

"We're on a starship, so if you go to far you get sucked into the black nothingness that is the vacuum of space."

"Were you born grumpy, or is it a persona you've developed over the decades?"

Bones glared at her over his PADD. "From what I've heard, the captain's set you up in some guest quarters since he doesn't have a couch," he answered. "Someone should be by shortly to take you there."

"Any idea what happened to my shoes and my jacket?" she asked, throwing off the covers.

"I'll look into it," he assured her with a fake smile before going back to his office.

Mariella stared daggers into his back until she heard the door open. Uhura greeted her with a bright smile. She was holding something behind her back.

"Good morning," the older woman said as she revealed a pair of black, Starfleet-issue boots from behind her back. "Your boot were sort of…disgusting, so I thought you could use these."

"Thank you," Mariella said as she took them and pulled them on. "It was just good, old-fashioned Iowa dirt and manure, though."

Uhura made a face and Mariella laughed at her. "Obviously, you never spent much time on a farm."

"No, I only had a pet cat before I left for the Academy," Uhura answered.

"I had a horse when I was younger," Mariella mused. "We all did."

Uhura cocked her head and smiled. "I can't imagine Captain Kirk on the back of a horse," she said.

"Oh, Jim is a very good rider."

Uhura snorted a laugh.

"Wow. Your mind is really in the gutter," Mariella commented as she hopped off the biobed.

Uhura followed her out the door and said, "I'm sorry, it's just that your brother is sort of…"

"I know what he is," Mariella cut her off. "He's been that way since he discovered girls at age eleven."

"Well, I didn't think it was a recent development," Uhura replied.

Mariella didn't get the chance to respond. A wiry body rounded the corner at high speed and slammed into her. From the hard floor, she looked up at a wide-eyed young man with curly, brown hair and a mortified expression.

"Hi," Mariella said lightly.

"Hello," he answered in a heavily accented voice before scrambling to get up. Once he was on his feet, he pulled Mariella up as well.

"Where's the fire, Chekov?" Uhura asked him.

"Vhat? Dere eez a fire? Vere?"

"It's an expression that they apparently don't use in…Russia?" Mariella attempted.

"Djes, Djes, I im vrom St. Petersburg," he answered excitedly. "Djou know Vrussia?"

"No, actually, I just studied a lot of Russian history in school," Mariella explained, smiling.

Uhura cleared her throat loudly, immediately attracting the attention of the younger people. "Ensign Chekov, where were you going so quickly, you put this woman flat on her back?"

His eyes widened once more before he said, "I-I'm late for my sheeft. I haf to go."

He skidded to a stop and turned around saying, "Sorry, sorry, vat's your name?"

"Mariella."

"Chekov, Pavel Chekov," he answered before running at break-neck speed toward the nearest turbolift.

Mariella turned toward Uhura who grinning mischievously.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing it's just that he's about your age," Uhura answered, as they headed off once more. "He only turned eighteen a couple of weeks ago."

"Really?"

"Umhmm, and he's single."

"That wasn't where I thought this conversation was going."

"Really?" Uhura asked incredulously. "You're the one who told him you liked Russian history. Who actually likes Russian history? It's confusing."

"It's complicated."

"My point exactly."

"Life is complicated."

"I suppose that's true," Uhura agreed after a silence.

"So…where are we going?" Mariella asked.

"I'm going to show you around the ship," Uhura answered as they stepped into a turbolift. "You've seen sickbay and the kitchen and the cargo bay, so we'll start with engineering."

"That's not against some Starfleet regulation?"

"It is, but when Spock pointed that out, the captain said Starfleet could kiss his ass," Uhura explained.

"That sounds like my brother," Mariella admitted. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Sure."

"Spock's the Vulcan first officer, right? Are you and him…together?"

Uhura's friendly manner fell as she stopped the turbolift. "Where did you hear that?"

"Uh…I overheard Nurse Chapel talking to Ensign Dormer about it and she said that she heard Scotty, whoever that is, saying something about you and Spock kissing before he and my brother nearly got themselves killed last year," Mariella explained.

Uhura sighed loudly and said, "I suppose I should be grateful it took him this long to say anything. Scotty is Lt. Montgomery Scott, by the way. He's our chief engineer whom I guess we're about to meet."

A few moments after Uhura reengaged the turbolift, Mariella felt a shift beneath her feet.

"We just dropped out of warp," she muttered.

"How can you tell?"

"I just-I can feel it."

"We shouldn't be getting to Midian III for another four days."

"Why else would we drop out of warp?"

"I, uh…"

The red lights flashing and the claxons blaring cut her off.

"Oh, no," Uhura muttered as the turbolift doors opened and they stepped into chaos.

"I'd say your problem is in engineering," Mariella said with a hint of sarcasm as a red-shirted ensign ran into her and nearly knocked her down. "What am I today? A bowling pin?"

"Get down!" they heard a man with a heavy Scottish accent yell.

Shortly thereafter, a small, green man emerged from the smoke followed by a round-faced man with two gold bars on the sleeves of his red shirt. The doors closed behind him, but he pulled a control panel off the wall to reveal the circuitry underneath.

"What are you doing?" Uhura screamed at him.

"Something shorted the emergency system!" he shouted. "Gotta bring down the blast doors or we lose the whole deck!"

"No time!" the green man shouted.

"Scotty, come on!"

He grimaced loudly while fiddling with the wires until a thick, gray blast door slid down over the regular door. Scotty laughed loudly and punched the air triumphantly. He then turned and ran toward the huddle of his compatriots.

"Get down! All of you!"

"I thought you said we were safe!" Uhura yelled at him.

"I said we won't lose the deck. There's a difference!"

They heard a rumbling from the engine room and the little green man muttered, "Oh, shit."

"Down!"

They all crouched down in a corner of the corridor. An explosion rocked the entire ship and they were thrown against the wall. More smoke poured into the already smoky corridor.

"Well, we're—a—live," Scotty said between coughs. "Don't think I know you. I'm Montgomery Scott."

"Mariella Chase," she answered, taking his offered hand.

"Pleasure."


"Okay, Scotty, what the hell happened down here?" Jim asked when he and most of his senior staff were gathered in the singed engine room. Bones demanded Mariella go back to sickbay, much to her chagrin.

"Well, this is your problem," Scotty answered holding up a clear canister about a foot long and eight inches deep with black crystals inside. "This used to be the dilithium matrix."

"What happened to it?"

"Best we can tell," Scotty began, handing the canister off to a passing ensign, "it was just faulty."

"When was it installed?"

"Last year when we had the core replaced at Jupiter Station," Scotty replied.

"Sabotage?" Jim quietly asked his first officer.

"It is possible," Spock answered. "I do, however, find it odd that sabotage would take a year for us to see the effects."

"Don' forget the emergency system shorting out," Scotty reminded them. "We still haven' figured how tha' happened."

"Well, our first priority needs to be getting back on our feet," Jim told them. "How long will it take us to get to Midian III at our present speed?"

"About 25 years," Sulu supplied.

Jim's eyes widened as he turned back toward Scotty and said, "Please tell me we have a spare dilithium matrix."

"We do, yeah," Scotty answered, "but it's sort of like a spare tire on one of those old automobiles; it works, just not as well as a regular one. It's only rated to handle the matter, anti-matter intermix for speeds up to warp five and tha's an absolute maximum."

"How long will it take us at warp five?" Jim asked Sulu.

"About 10 days."

"Captain, I canna recommend cruising at warp five on a spare dilithium matrix."

"Well, you're gonna have to make it happen, Scotty."

"It'll take at least three days just to install it, Sir."

"You've got until tomorrow morning."

"Tha'…would take a miracle."

"Then work a miracle," Jim told him. "Mr. Sulu, you have some engineering experience. Give him a hand. Spock, Uhura, you're with me."

The trio weaved their way through the repair crews to the nearest turbolift. When the doors closed, Jim said, "Spock, I need you to reassign any crewman with experience to engineering. Subspace communication is still online, correct?"

"Yes, Sir," Uhura answered.

"We need to tell the science station on Midian III we'll be late. Also inform Starfleet of our situation. They especially need to know about the faulty dilithium coming out of Jupiter Station," he told her. "And I'd like both of you to investigate what happened. Link up with Jupiter Station and see if you can find out where they got that dilithium. Spock, you have the conn until I get back. I need to check on my sister."

Uhura stared straight ahead and refused to make eye contact with Spock. She was surprised when he reached across her to stop the turbolift.

"Are you all right?" he asked with as much concern as he allowed himself.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You inhaled a large quantity of smoke," he told her matter-of-factly, "likely large enough to cause harm to the human respiratory system."

"I'm fine," she assured him. "The only reason McCoy insisted Mariella come to sickbay was because she was already weak from malnutrition and he wasn't sure how her body would handle the strain."

"Are you sure you are all right?"

"I'm fine. Why do you keep asking me that?"

"Until now, you have not spoken to me in nineteen hours. Why is that?"

Uhura rolled her eyes and sighed. "You called me a gossip."

"I merely asked you to stop talking about the captain's personal relationship with the intruder. I did not call you anything."

"Your intention was the same."

"I had not other intention aside from quelling rumors that were no doubt already spreading among the crew," he said with only the slightest hint of irritation.

Uhura rubbed her temples and forehead. "This is so damned frustrating."

"What is?"

"Being the subject of every other rumor on this ship and then being criticized for explaining what happened after breakfast!"

"Why would you be the subject of rumors on board this ship?"

"Because of you!"

"Because of me?"

"Because of us," she said more calmly before turning away from him and toward the turbolift.

The silence lingered for a long moment before Spock said, "Perhaps you would be happier if we ended our romantic relationship."

"Perhaps I would," she answered stoically.

"Then from this moment forward, our relationship is strictly professional," he said.

"Good," she agreed.

He nodded curtly before reengaging the turbolift.


Jim stepped into the controlled chaos of sickbay and immediately spotted his sister dangling her legs off the end of a biobed. As soon as she saw him, she growled, "Get me out of here!"

He grinned and shouted, "Bones, I'm taking my sister!"

"Please do," Bones shouted back without looking up from the burn victim he was treating.

He put his hand on Mariella's back and guided her out of sickbay. When they were out into the corridor, Jim said, "Sorry you can't get the full tour, baby girl. I really wanted to show off my ship."

"Of course you did," she answered with an eye roll. "Do you know what happened yet?"

"Not really," he answered as they stepped into a turbolift, "but it was bad."

A short trip later they stepped onto a different deck and Jim ushered her down the hall and into a room. It was small with only enough room for a bed and a desk with subspace transmitter.

"Sorry, it's only slightly larger than your average prison cell," he joked sitting on the edge of the desk.

Mariella chuckled and replied, "It's okay, I broke onto your ship, that's sort of a criminal act."

He took a deep breath and said, "I have to ask you a question."

"I'm really beginning to hate that look on your face," she told him, sitting on the end of the bed.

"The last place Isaac worked was a dilithium mine, wasn't it?" he asked with a sigh.

"Well, the last place I know of, but that was a little over a year ago," she answered.

"Where was it?"

"Konossis VII."

Jim pressed a button on a control panel and said, "Kirk to Uhura."

"Yes, Sir," Uhura's voice answered.

"Have you found out where Jupiter Station got their dilithium?"

"Yes, they got it from a mine on Konossis VII."

Jim glanced at his sister before saying, "That's on the Klingon border, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Uhura answered. "Starfleet isn't supplied by them anymore because the mine started selling to the Klingons as well, and Starfleet Security considered them too much of a risk."

"Thanks, Uhura," Jim told her before turning back to his sister.

"What are you thinking, Jim?" she asked him.

"I just think it's strange the last place Isaac worked before he disappeared was on the Klingon border," he answered. "And my ship nearly blew up today. That's just too many coincidences."