Disclaimer: This story and the characters I created belong to me. "Star Trek" belongs to The Powers That Be at Paramount…more's the pity.

Notes: This story was originally written August-October 2004 for an online trivia/games group I still belong to. I had taken it as a personal challenge to use the words I garnered from one of the daily games to inspire me to write each chapter.

The words that inspired this chapter? BEET TOWN NOTED GIMP

Feedback welcome!

-----------------------------------------------------------

The Messhall...

Pavel Chekov looked up at the door of the messhall as yet another crewman walked through to join the lunchtime crowd. As it was not the particular crewman he was waiting for, he looked back down at the bowl of borscht sitting on the table in front of him. He picked up a spoon and began to idly swirl it through the soup. He scooped a chunk of beet from the borscht and lifted the spoon in front of his face, staring at the piece of vegetable matter as if trying to divine the mysteries of the universe or plot an intricate course through an especially dangerous nebula.

"Pavel!" a voice said abruptly, right next to his ear, startling Chekov and causing him to drop his spoon into the soup bowl with a splash.

"Sulu!" Chekov growled as he picked up a napkin and began dabbing at his chest. "Do you know how hard it is to get borscht stains out of these uniforms? Sneak up on me again like that, and you get the laundry bill!"

"So noted," Sulu replied with a smirk. "Now, do you want to hear what happened on the Bridge this morning - or would you and your spoon like to be alone for a while?"

"Tell, tell," Chekov urged, then sighed. "It figures, though. Nothing interesting ever happens on the Bridge when I'm on shift!"

Sulu set his lunch tray on the table across from Chekov and sat down, then leaned forward to whisper almost conspiratorially, "Imagine the hottest woman you've ever laid eyes on...times ten."

"Yeah, what about her?" Chekov said.

"I saw her, this morning...on the viewscreen."

"Riiiight," Chekov said dubiously, and with a hint of jealousy.

"It's true," Sulu protested. "She's some kind of official greeter or something for this planet. I've never seen anyone like her, Chekov...I was...she was...well, you know the Captain was excited - that's a given."

Chekov nodded.

"Chekov, I...I'm a fairly restrained and reasonable guy, I think, especially while on duty. But man, I must have been walking like a gimp when I left the Bridge a while ago, that's how excited I was."

Chekov sighed again. "I wish I'd seen her. Will she still be around by the time my shift starts, do you think?"

Sulu shook his head. "I doubt it. The last thing I heard was that the Captain was arranging to meet with some of the planetary officials in town to firm up the final arrangements for shore leave."

"Darn," Chekov muttered. "I wonder who he's taking down with him..."

TBC...