Chapter Eight: The Usual Suspects

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Even to Spock, Lt. Wu appears agitated.

While the other department heads are making their reports, she jiggles her leg up and down, squints her eyes, and rubs her hands.

If Captain Pike notices, he doesn't comment. Likewise, his aide seems oblivious to the lieutenant's distress.

Finally Captain Pike calls on Lt. Wu and she launches into a breathless account of the difficulty of requiring everyone on her staff to do double duty—especially right when her own vacation is fast approaching.

"I just don't see how we can get it done in time, Captain," she says, her brows knit, her tone of voice odd. At first Spock can't identify the emotion she is displaying, but then it comes to him.

Lt. Wu is feeling aggrieved.

Aggrieved: feeling troubled or distressed; a perception of being mistreated; resentful for wrongs committed against someone.

Why she should feel this way is a mystery. The pre-launch schedule is busy but not unreasonable. Until now, Lt. Wu has not complained about the workload or the pace. Is the upcoming off-duty time somehow impacting her ability to complete her work?

That doesn't seem likely, though he doesn't know her very well. She may be the kind of person who accepts more responsibility than she is capable of successfully completing.

The longest conversation he has ever had with her was at the first staff meeting when she implied that his encounter with the attackers on the bus was something frightening. At the time he found her mildly impolite but not malicious—though on reflection, he wonders if she might be behind some of the pranks.

Even if she is, that doesn't explain her current state of aggrievement.

"I understand the need to keep the inventory updated," she says to Captain Pike, sitting at his usual spot at the head of the conference table, "but asking us to visually inspect the contents of every single case now—after we have already sealed them—well, sir, we've had to reopen over fourteen thousand shipping crates so far—and that's just the stuff coming from Riverside. That doesn't even include the materiel from the other yards."

Pike taps his stylus on his PADD and says, "Say again? You are having to do what?"

Lt. Wu actually huffs—Spock is astonished to hear her do it not once, but twice. He darts a glance at Captain Pike and sees a look of annoyance creep over his features.

"Sir, I don't understand," Lt. Wu begins, "why you ordered a visual inspection after the packing was almost finished. Surely that should have been done before the crates were sealed. Opening everything to check the inventory will put us weeks behind schedule—"

Spock sees Captain Pike's face flush red. Anger, then, or distress.

"Let me get this straight," Pike says to Lt. Wu. "You are opening every already-packed box to do another inventory—in addition to the inventory you already did. Why?"

Lt. Wu closes her eyes and sighs.

"As I said, Sir, it is your order. Monday—remember? You sent a visual inspection order. My department has been working on it ever since."

From the angle where he is sitting next to Pike, Spock sees something change in the captain's expression.

"Lieutenant," he says, his voice low and soft, "I never sent any such order."

Holding her PADD up with both hands, Lt. Wu says, "Sir, here it is!"

Captain Pike reaches out and takes the PADD and looks over it. Then he hands it to Spock.

After tapping though several screens, Spock says, "A forgery, Captain. Though a very good one."

Lt. Wu's face twists into an unreadable expression.

"Any idea who did this?" Pike asks, and Spock says, "No, sir, though it would require an advanced level of computing skill."

"Just for fun, Mr. Spock," Captain Pike says, his voice not sounding amused at all, "who here in this room—this room of people who seem to have an inordinate fondness for pranks—is capable of doing such a thing? Sending an order with my official seal—clever enough to fool someone as smart as Lt. Wu?"

With that Captain Pike's gaze lingers on Lt. Wu; she says nothing but sits breathing heavily. Spock watches her warily.

"Myself, Chief Engineer Olson, Lt. Commander Sizemore, and Commander Jolsen."

"I notice that you don't list me," Captain Pike says, and Spock says immediately, "No, Sir. I do not judge your encryption skills sufficient."

"I see," Pike says, and Spock has the distinct impression that he is surprised. It is true, however. The captain is an excellent pilot and a better than fair mechanic, but his computer rating is half of Spock's.

"And of those four people you listed, who would have the motivation or reason to send a forged order to Lt. Wu?"

"Unknown, Captain. I cannot speculate on the motives of others."

"And your own motivation, Commander? What about speculating on that for us?"

"I did not author this forged document, Captain."

"Do you know who did?"

"Negative."

"Do you have an idea who might have?"

Spock pauses for a moment before answering. Chief Engineer Olson is an admitted prankster, though he appears to be a close friend with Lt. Wu, and Spock's research into pranks suggests that close friends resist the kinds of jokes that would result in enmity—and Lt. Wu is certainly angry now.

Lt. Commander Sizemore's department works closely with Lt. Wu's; any change in Lt. Wu's schedule would also negatively impact Lt. Commander Sizemore. That he would inconvenience himself and his department in order to play a prank seems unlikely.

As Captain Pike's aide, Natalie Jolsen has access to his key codes that would make the forgery possible—though her commitment to the launch date seems in conflict with any slowdown in work. Her own release from Starfleet will coincide with the launch of the Enterprise—and she has said repeatedly that she is eager to begin life out of the service. Delaying the launch means delaying her personal goals—which also seems unlikely.

"Negative, Captain," he says, and then adds, "though on purely empirical grounds, my own involvement appears to be the most logical."

"But you said you didn't do it."

"No, Sir, I did not."

"Then we are back to square one."

Captain Pike hands the PADD back to Lt. Wu.

"Lieutenant, cancel the visual inspection and see what you can do to make up for the lost time."

He turns to his officers sitting around the table and says, "And everyone else, you are tasked with speeding up your own production to offset what we've lost in operations. Everyone's in this together—and everyone is going to have to work harder to get us out of this fix. Dismissed."

X X X X X X X X X

Their usual bar is almost empty, which suits Natalie and Chris just fine. For a change they are both nursing warm bottles of beer instead of scotch and bourbon, which means they are drinking less and talking more than usual.

"They're all convinced Spock did it," Natalie says, peeling the label from the top of her beer bottle.

"That's what you wanted, wasn't it?" Pike motions to the bartender to bring him another bottle. "You?" Pike asks Natalie, but she shakes her head. Beer is not her poison—and she still has half a bottle left.

"He's the odds-on favorite—computer whiz, and all that," she says. "His encryption skills are up to snuff—unlike someone I know."

She leers at Chris and he laughs before taking a swig of his beer.

"Yeah, well, what do you know. But he pegged you in the list of usual suspects. I wasn't expecting that."

The bartender sets a bottle in front of Pike and takes the empty one back with him to the end of the bar.

"You shouldn't have been surprised," Natalie says. "I keep telling you, don't underestimate him. Use him, Chris. That's why I want him there—you need him."

"You're telling me that you expected him to finger you as the prankster? You weren't surprised?"

"Okay," Natalie says, grinning, "I was a little flustered when he put my name on the list—but no one seemed to take that suggestion seriously. If anything, they would blame Olson before me. But anyway," she says, rubbing her finger in the grain of the wood on the bar, "they think Spock can do magic with the computers now—and they'll stop trying to get his goat."

"And if they don't?" Pike says, and Natalie takes another deep sip of her beer.

"Then you'll have to convince them otherwise," Natalie says.

X X X X X X X X X

They are rarely out together at night.

During the day, an instructor and his teaching assistant can visit a restaurant for lunch, stroll across the campus, sit on the bench outside the student union and chat—make tea in the breakroom and have a private conversation—and no one can point to anything improper.

But once the sun goes down, all bets are off.

Suddenly a meal in a restaurant is a date; a stroll in the moonlight is suggestive; a bench is a place where lovers meet; a cup of tea and private conversation are invitations to intimacy.

So Nyota is surprised when her comm chimes after supper and she hears Spock asking her to meet him for a walk along the waterfront.

In the daylight, the waterfront is a tourist destination—a place to charter boats or sit at a sidewalk café for a glass of wine.

In the dark, the waterfront is both beautiful and mildly threatening, the way amusement park rides offer the near-certainty of safety and a niggling doubt about their danger.

At any rate, Nyota is rarely anxious when she is with Spock—at least not for her safety. She meets him at the north gate of the campus, the one closest to her dorm, and they fall into step together and head toward the sound of the fog horns and buoy bells.

The moon is the tiniest crescent, and as they walk in and out of the circles of light cast on the ground by streetlamps, Nyota notes its place in the sky—first over her left shoulder, and then straight ahead as they near the bay.

As she hurries across the street to the raised walkway that follows the curve of the water, Nyota stumbles slightly and Spock grabs her hand. Immediately his thoughts flood her; she feels him pulling back, raising his shields, and she thinks, Don't go. Tell me why we are here.

Come, he says, and he leads her up the walkway to where an ancient bollard stands—the thick metal cylinder worn slick from the mooring ropes of countless ships.

Nyota reaches out her hand and rubs it along its nubby top. She thinks of the old tall ships—the windjammers and schooners, the brigantines and sloops—temporarily tethered to the land by this strange, strong metal post.

"When I first came to San Francisco," Spock says aloud, "I used to walk here in the evenings. This bollard was my point of meditation—I found the symbolism pleasing."

"What do you mean?" Nyota asks, and Spock lifts his hand to the sky.

"There," he says. "In the winter, 40 Eridani is visible above the horizon. I could see the sun of my home world without leaving this one."

"Like a ship tied to the dock," Nyota finishes. Spock is rarely this metaphoric—this poetic.

He turns to Nyota and touches her face with his fingers, and she knows that he is thinking now of the Enterprise. The idea of the launch brings him both pleasure and pain—and she sees herself from his vantage point, like something lovely and ephemeral—a butterfly, or a rainbow. The image makes her laugh.

Spock's eyebrows shoot up into his bangs—and that makes her laugh again.

"When that ship leaves," she says, rubbing her hand back over the top of the bollard, "I'm going to be on it, too."

A warmth seeps into her despite the chilly wind blowing off the bay—and Nyota steps so close that their bodies are touching. She reaches up and tugs his hands down around her waist, and then she slides her arms around his neck.

She waits for a kiss that doesn't come.

Something distracts him—she feels it more than sees it—and she looks up at him and says, "What are you thinking about?"

Spock tips his forehead to hers and says, "Why would Commander Jolsen deliberately sabotage the pre-launch schedule?"

Nyota steps back.

"What?"

He tells her that he has calculated the odds of each of the suspects—and that Commander Jolsen has a 93.45% chance of being the perpetrator of the prank on Lt. Wu.

"The actual launch schedule will, in the end, not be adversely affected," Spock adds. "The other departments are tasked with making up the time."

"So, everyone is taking a little hit," Nyota says, and she sees Spock considering her choice of words.

"Affirmative," he says at last, and she nods.

"Then it makes sense."

"Explain."

"Commander Jolsen just gave you a gift," Nyota says. "Nobody on that staff is going to dare pull another prank—because if they do, it comes back to bite them."

Spock looks down at the bollard and back at the water of the bay.

"I believe that Commander Jolsen would like to be Captain Pike's first officer on the Enterprise."

"She had that chance," Nyota points out. "And she turned it down."

She slides her arms back around Spock's neck.

"That's another little gift she gave you," she says, and Spock screws his face into what Nyota thinks of as his pensive look.

"Should I thank her?" he says, and she shakes her head.

"Nope," she says, leaning up and kissing his cheek. "She already knows."

A/N: One last chapter coming up!

In the spirit of merry pranksters, I considered holding that chapter hostage until 48 people post reviews...or until 48 hours pass, whichever happens first!

Hahahahahahah...But I won't do that...or will I...

Thanks to everyone who reads and reviews. You keep fanfiction writers going. And thanks to StarTrekFanWriter for reading and making suggestions. Check out her many fics in my favorites, including her newest one, "Tapestry."