The End?
All the senior officers of the Enterprise gathered around a conference table. Once they were all seated, Jim started to speak. "Well, gentlemen, it's come to my attention that there is a war going on among us. Good natured and well intentioned though it may be, it has now started to interfere with official Starfleet duties. Therefore, I'm calling an end to it, right here, right now. If any of you have set up a prank of any kind, please come forward. No disciplinary action will be taken unless I hear of pranks continuing after we leave this room. Do I make myself clear?"
There was a chorus of "Yes Captain!"
"Very good. Well? Anybody?"
"Eh, Mr. Spock, you better get some new shampoo bottles. That's all I'm sayin'," admitted Scotty.
"Very well, Mr. Scott," agreed Spock.
Everyone stared at Scotty curiously.
"When he used his shampoo next, it would have died his hair pink," explained Scotty after an uncomfortable silence. "It's not against regulation!"
"All right, Mr. Scott, no harm done," responded Jim smoothly. "Anyone else?"
No one came forward.
"All right. Meeting adjourned."
They all filed out of the room. "Pink, eh?" said Chekov to Scotty. "Darn. I wish I could have seen that."
"Well, it's back to business," said Scotty in reply. He was relieved, in a way. He sure didn't want another incident like the one with the spiders!
Jim was the last out the door. He was quite relieved that this was over with, though he had to admit, it was fun while it lasted. Until he had to explain to the Senali, what, exactly, the spiders had been doing in their room. He explained it as a science experiment gone awry. Thankfully, their people were highly scientific, and seemed to understand. He knew he might not be so lucky next time, so he called off the pranks.
He felt in his pocket for his PADD, in order to update his Captain's log. However, it wasn't there. Strange. This was the third time today that he'd somehow misplaced a PADD. Then there were those tripping and falling incidents.
Maybe he really SHOULD have Bones check him out.
He hated the idea, yet he refused to be a liability to his ship just because of his stubborn pride. He made his way down – the elevator stopping at the wrong floor at first – then settled into one of McCoy's biobeds in resignation.
A half hour later, Bones gave up. "Well Jim, there just isn't anything wrong with you. Maybe it's stress. Lord knows we've been through a lot! Take some time off. Let Spock handle things for awhile."
"What about the dinner tonight? I still have to go to that," Jim insisted.
"It's nothing that Spock can't handle. I mean it, Jim."
Jim didn't like the prospect, especially when the Ambassadors were on board, but what choice did he have? He clearly wasn't at his peak. "All right, Bones."
"I'll tell Spock. You go to your quarters and rest."
Jim made his way to his quarters, but when he arrived at his hall, his door wasn't where he expected it to be. "My door is on the right, not the left," he mumbled to himself, yet, his nameplate was on the left side! He entered. Sure enough, all his things were in there. "This can't be," Jim denied, yet, there it all was!
Deeply unsettled, Kirk switched on his communicator. "Kirk to Spock."
"Spock here."
"Can you come up here for a minute?"
"Yes, Captain. I am on my way."
Within minutes, Spock arrived. "Fascinating," he commented as he entered.
"It's not just me, then?"
"No. Captain, I believe this is linked to the incident in the transporter room."
"My thoughts exactly! Think that the Ambassadors have something to do with it? Things have been very strange for me since their arrival."
"It is possible," granted Spock. "However, I am uncertain what would motivate them to do such a thing, and why they would focus their efforts only on you."
"Well, if they're trying to drive me insane, I think it's beginning to work." He described to Spock everything that happened that day.
"Captain," started Spock hesitantly.
"Go ahead Spock, I'm open to anything," encouraged Jim.
"If I may meld with you, I might see something about these instances that you have missed."
"Go ahead, Spock," invited Jim.
Spock raised a brow slightly at how casually Jim accepted these melds. Nevertheless, he sat and got down to business with it, flicking through Jim's memories, his brows drawing together.
When Spock withdrew, Jim asked, "Well?"
"A theory, Captain. I shall return." Spock left the room, presumably to hunt down his lead.
With nothing else to do, Jim lay down on his bed and made shadow shapes on the wall. No one knew of this stress relieving quirk of his, not even Spock. He'd done it ever since he was a child, whenever he needed to get his mind off things.
When he heard the door swish open, he quickly dropped his hands. "Mr. Spock," Jim greeted his First Officer.
"Captain. I have uncovered a possibility. I theorized that we might not have left all of the spirits behind. One of them might have had a personal connection with you, and followed you back to the ship. I cross referenced the files of the ship's passengers and crew with yours. As I suspected, there is a match. Does the name Sean Finnegan sound familiar?"
"Finnegan! Yes, he was quite the prankster. I just dreamed about him last night in fact. You mean…" trailed off Jim, his eyes bugging out in horror.
"I do believe, Captain, that Finnegan has joined us in the form of a poltergeist. It is only a theory, however, I do believe that it is one that can be proven or disproven in reasonable time."
"Finnegan the poltergeist," Jim repeated faintly. And he'd thought Finnegan was bad enough when he was alive!
"Captain, may I suggest you remain off duty until this situation has been resolved. If it is indeed Finnegan, we do not know what he may do next. He could endanger the crew and the Ambassadors."
"You're right, Mr. Spock. But I'll be damned if I let Finnegan keep me from doing my job!" he swore heatedly.
"I will do all I can, Captain," assured Spock. He exited the room, his mind already churning with ideas. Perhaps some kind of radiation might banish Finnegan.
Jim, meanwhile, turned to his computer screen, only to see:
"HA! HA! HA! You'll never catch me, Jimmy boy!"
"Oh, I will, Finnegan! I will!" vowed Jim.
Later, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov, Scotty, and Uhura sat with the Ambassador and her assistants at the dinner party.
"Is Captain Kirk all right?" asked Odessa.
"Yes, don't worry. He's just a little under the weather. He sends his apologies," McCoy explained.
"Oh, well I hope to talk with him soon. I want to hear more about his missions. Even we have heard how legendary they are!" She exclaimed, her eyes sparkling.
"Well, darlin', I could tell you about a few of mine," said McCoy.
"Please do," replied Odessa.
Meanwhile, Spock was chatting with Nilhadri. "What forms of meditation do you use?"
"Meditation?" asked Nil, with a slight quirk of her brow.
"Yes. Do you do it daily, or does weekly suffice?"
"We don't meditate. Our brains do not… cope with it well," Nil said.
"Fascinating," said Spock, a hint of skepticism in his voice.
Scotty was trying to get a bored Naliim in the spirit of things by talking science, which he discovered she had a passion for. It took all of his charm, but he managed to get her to crack a smile now and then. The only thing she seemed interested in was talking about the ship, which suited him just fine.
Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov talked amongst themselves.
"What is wrong with the Captain?" wondered Chekov. "He seemed just fine when I saw him a few hours ago. And Spock has had me do all these weird scans in his vicinity."
"Maybe it has something to do with those spirits we encountered," debated Sulu.
"I think you're right. Spock has me scanning all frequencies for anything out of the ordinary. I did think I picked up some weird laughter on one. Spock listened to it, and then asked me to do other things," offered Uhura.
"A laughing ghost?" stated Chekov skeptically.
"Who knows? We've encountered stranger things," Sulu pointed out.
"But what does it have to do with the Captain?" Uhura wondered.
Meanwhile, Jim was researching everything to do with poltergeists on the computer. Some of the suggestions – like leaving salt out – seemed absurd, but he tried them anyway. There had to be something he could do.
He was so intent that he almost missed his underwear drawer opening.
Most of his underwear was standard issue black briefs, but he did keep one or two that ex-girlfriends had given him. One of them said, "Hot Kirk Ass." It was this particular one that was now wiggling its way out of the drawer.
"What?" said Jim in shock. The garment did a mocking, wiggling dance in midair, before heading towards the door.
"Hey, wait a second – " said Jim, getting up.
The door opened and the underwear floated out to the hall.
"HEY!" Jim screamed, sprinting after it. If it didn't have his name on it, it wouldn't be so bad – he could pretend it wasn't his. But this was just plain embarrassing!
Jim ran after it like a madman, yelling, swearing, and leaping at it. He hated giving Finnegan the satisfaction, but, he had to get that underwear! It wouldn't do for the diplomats to see this! Maybe if he let the poltergeist have his fun, he'd tire of it before the dinner was over.
To his horror, Finnegan steadily made his way to the dinner hall.
"Finnegan!" hissed Jim irately when he was led just outside the door. "Enough! You loved Starfleet, didn't you? It's one thing to embarrass me – it's another to cause a diplomatic incident!"
The underwear made for the door.
"No!" said Jim, much louder than he intended.
"Excuse me, I'll check it out, do not worry," assured Chekov, when they were startled by a crazed yell outside the room.
The young navigator hurried to the door and stepped through, making sure it closed behind him. He turned around and was nearly knocked over by…
…The captain with underwear on his head?
"Captain?" questioned Chekov.
Jim snatched the underwear from his head and hid it behind his back.
"All is well, carry on," Jim assured him, red and flustered.
"Are you feeling better? Will you be joining us?"
"No. Uh, top secret mission. Don't tell anyone."
"Of course, Captain!" said Chekov, straightening. "I'll go right back in and tell them it was nothing!"
Jim decided he would promote Chekov at the first opportunity.
Chekov marched back in and did exactly as he said, though he secretly wondered why the captain would bring an extra pair of underpants on a secret mission.
The moment Chekov was gone, Finnegan wrenched the underwear from Jim's hands and whipped down the hall at top speed.
"HEY! You've had your fun!" Jim protested.
Jim chased it until it hovered just outside the Ambassador's rooms. Oh, no. The last thing he needed was for Finnegan to plant it somewhere in there. That would almost be worse than the dinner!
The poltergeist seemed to come to a decision, and then whipped into the room on the left – Odessa's room, if he remembered correctly. The pretty one. Jim quickly glanced around before diving in after it.
Finnegan led him on a merry chase through the room, before settling between the mattress cushions.
Chest heaving, Jim reached in and grabbed it. As he did, his hands also closed around a metal object. He pulled it out along with his underwear. "It looks like a data chip," mused Jim. Why would she hide a data chip in between her mattress cushions? Should he leave it here, or should he investigate it? If he took it, she'd know someone had been here. But yet, here was an opportunity to see what, if any, connection they had to those destroyed ships.
He decided he would copy the information to the computer and did so quickly at Odessa's terminal, saving it into a secret file. Then he replaced it and hurriedly marched back to his room, underwear stuffed firmly in his pocket. Finnegan, at least, seemed done tormenting him for now, so he made it back unscathed.
Finnegan, however, was none too pleased at Chekov's professional reaction to his captain. He'd spoiled his fun! He would definitely be paying him a visit. He just had to find the best way to embarrass him!
Despite the chapter title, it is not the end! I have decided to finish this story. Hope you all enjoy!
