ATTENTION! i added on to the previous chapter. go back and read the last section so you can understand what's happening here. thank you. enjoy!


Chapter 28: Arrangements

"I warned ye, didn't I?" Scotty snapped at Akiko as she stood in her quarters, now surrounded by dozens of Tribbles crawling over her desk, bed and her. "I told ye, 'Don't feed it' and look what's happened!"

"Alright, Scotty, I get it," Akiko sighed, pulling a Tribble from her shoulder and putting it down on the table. "How do I stop it?"

"There's no way o' stoppin' 'em now, lass," Scotty replied, crossing his arms over his chest and shaking his head. "Ye'll hafta find a place for 'em."

"Place like where?" Akiko sighed, heading toward her desk and dusting off some balls of fur that sat on her chair before sitting there herself.

"Thank goodness Jacque took my advice," Scotty muttered, shuffling through the Tribbles collecting at his feet. "Ye don't see her disobeying an order, eh?"

"I was curious," Akiko retorted.

"Ever hear the phrase 'Curiosity killed the cat'?" he shot back.

"Just…tell me how to fix this, will you?"

"I already told ye, lass," he replied. "Did ye tell the captain?"

"S-Commander Spock is on his way to do that," she sighed. "He'll have better luck explaining it then me."

"Oh, my God!"

Akiko and Scotty turned to the doorway of her room to see Kirk and Spock standing there. Akiko shot to her feet but soon lost her disciplined air when Kirk burst out laughing as Spock only stood with his hands behind his back, lifting a brow at his captain's reaction.

"You're overrun!" Kirk laughed, doubling over from the laughter as Akiko gave him an un-amused stare.

"And if we don't get 'em outta here, the whole ship will be overrun!" Scotty shot out, making Kirk freeze and stare wide blue eyes at him.

"What?" he breathed.

"They keep reproducin' after ye feed 'em," Scotty explained, sending Kirk's eyes wider.

"Are you kidding me?" he snapped. "No wonder Jacque wouldn't let me in her room! She didn't want me to see-!"

"Don't tell me she fed hers too!" Akiko prayed and Kirk looked to her before looking sheepishly to the floor and tracing invisible circles with his boot.

"Well, she didn't," he muttered, but Spock's Vulcan hearing caught it and he gave a subtle sigh.

"It seems the captain has let his curiosity get the better of him, as well," he reported.

Kirk shot a glare to Spock as Scotty slapped a hand to his face in exasperation and Akiko's shoulders slumped, her head bowing dramatically.

"May I suggest we find a solution to this problem before we leave for our next mission?" Spock added. "It would be most inconvenient to have these…things around the ship when the Ambassador boards."

"Ambassador?" Akiko frowned in wonder, carefully maneuvering her way toward the three men.

"We will be escorting the Ambassador of Maunder back here for a meeting on revising our treaty with them," Spock explained. "A reptilian race such as theirs might take too well to traveling in a ship full of furry balls crawling around."

"If Bones was here, he'd say something sarcastic about that," Kirk muttered.

"And since he is not, may we proceed to finding a way out of our predicament?" Spock shot back to everyone's surprise.

"Alright, alright," Kirk muttered, waving off his first officer. "I'll get to it. Maybe I can ask Pike for a favor?"

"Well, we gotta get somethin' done about this or-Stop feedin' 'em!"

Scotty cut off his own comment to shout at Akiko as he had scanned the room while talking. She had a Tribble in her lap and a food bar in the other. His shout made her jump and instantly set the bar on the desk…and was soon devoured by the other Tribbles on the table. Scotty gave another exasperated sigh as Akiko tried shooing the other balls of fur away from it, but it was too late. They'd eaten every crumb.

"Maybe we can take 'em to New Vulcan," Kirk suddenly thought aloud, and the comment made Spock lift a brow at his captain in wonder. "We'll see how long Vulcans can last with cute and cuddly creatures without cracking a smile."

"I do not find that amusing Captain," Spock replied, catching Kirk's smirk. "Nor do I believe that is a logical experiment to pursue."

"Spoil Sport," Kirk muttered, turning to head out of the room and back toward the briefing. "Gotta make a call to Pike. Keep these things in their designated rooms, will ya, Sparky?"

"I'll try, Sir!" Akiko called, standing again and winced when the Tribble in her lap fell to the ground, but it didn't make any other sound than the purring which was now almost deafening from all the balls of fur in the room.

"I gotta get outta her," Scotty snapped, making his way out of the room and toward Spock who stepped aside to let him by. "Keep 'em in line, Sparky! I do not wanna see any of those things in engineering!"

"Yes, Sir!" Akiko called again, carefully stepping through her room to get to Spock as well. He quickly held out his hand when she was close enough to help her with the last step and she quickly closed her door, sighing in relief.

"Well, I just get us into all sorts of trouble, don't I?" she sighed before turning back to Spock as he let go of her hand so she could straighten herself out, "Anyway, you wanted to speak to me?"

"Yes," Spock nodded, entreating her to walk with him down the hall with a hand and they began strolling aimlessly, side by side. "I wished to discuss our living arrangement on the ship."

"I recall you mentioning that before my Tribble started multiplying," she smiled, chancing to step closer to him and wrap her arms around one of his. He allowed it as no one was in the halls of the ship. Everyone was either in their quarters or at the Starfleet bar taking a break from space-sailing.

"I meant to ask if you would rather stay in your quarters or move into mine," he continued. "It is logical that a married couple assigned to the same starship would share a room."

"Completely," Akiko agreed with a huge grin. "But would you be comfortable sharing a room with me?" That made Spock stop and look to her in wonder but she soon giggled, "I was kidding. When shall move in?"

"After you have rid yourself of your Tribbles," he replied, without hesitation.

"Can I keep one?" she wondered with a small pout.

"Only if you have learned your lesson about feeding it," he allowed and she smiled sweetly before glancing around the hall then pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"I love you," she grinned, hugging his arm as they continued down the hall. "Where are we going?"

"I think it would be best if we head toward the briefing room," Spock replied. "We should be abreast of everything the captain and Admiral Pike have decided about this Tribble problem."

"Agreed," Akiko nodded.

"Akiko!"

The couple stopped and Akiko detached from Spock's arm so they could both turn toward a running Jacqueline, who stopped in front of them, doubled over and panting for breath.

"What's wrong, Jacque?" Akiko frowned.

"The…Tribbles," she explained between breaths. "I…I couldn't…keep them all…in my room." She looked up to Akiko with wide, jade eyes filled with horror as she breathed, "They got into the galley."


Later on the Bridge...

"Well, this is just wonderful," Kirk muttered, sitting in his captain's chair, nearly buried in Tribbles. "No wonder the girls got them for free. The guy was waiting for a couple of saps to dump them on."

"Sir, Starfleet is wondering why we haven't left port yet," Uhura reported from her post before sucking her teeth at a Tribble lying on a panel she need to read and moving it out of the way.

"Tell 'em I'm waiting for a call from Pike," Kirk replied, sneering at a ball of fur that sat on one of the arms of his chair and smacking it off as it sounded.

"Bridge to Sick Bay," Kristine's voice sounded from the com.

"Sick Bay, Bridge," Kirk replied.

"Sir, Doctor McCoy wanted to-"

"Dammit Jim! I'm a Doctor, not a zoo-keeper!" McCoy's voice interrupted Kristine's on the com. "I've got balls of fur tripping me while I'm trying to conduct physicals!"

"We're all having problems, Bones," Kirk sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Just hold off on the examinations until we get all this sorted out, alright? We're not going anywhere, yet."

"And what about the patients coming in with injuries from falls caused by these things, huh?" McCoy barked back. "How am I supposed to treat them without falling myself?"

"Drag your feet, Doctor," Kirk shot back. "I've done what I can, short of shooting these things out the airlock, which I will not do."

"Leo, calm down," Kristine's soothing voice came faintly from the com before coming in clearly. "I'm sorry, Captain. He didn't get much sleep last night. We're all a bit irritated with these things impeding our work."

"Do me a favor, Kris, and give him a hypo that'll knock him out for a few days," Kirk muttered into the com, making Kristine laugh.

"You have no idea how many times I've wanted to, Sir," she replied, and he didn't bother to answer.

"Sir," Uhura called again, drawing his attention to her. "Admiral Pike is requesting to come aboard."

"Tell him he's got it," Kirk replied, standing quickly and shuffling his way through the purring Tribbles toward the lift. He quickly made his way to the transporter room where Akiko sat at the controls, trying to move the Tribbles on the panel from the screens she needed to see.

"Beam him aboard," he ordered, and Akiko went to work on the controls.

The small room was flooded with light before Admiral Pike appeared, standing at attention on the pad. Akiko stood quickly as he descended the steps, cautiously. The Admiral stared wide eyes at the balls of fur scattering the floor before he turned to Kirk.

"And now you've seen my dilemma first hand," Kirk smiled, tightly as he shook Pike's hand.

"Yeah," Pike chuckled before looking to Akiko who bowed her head in shame. "I take it by that look that you're the one who fed one of them, right?"

"Well, not just me, Sir," she murmured, lifting her head slightly to glance at Kirk who glared at her as Pike turned an amused smirk to him.

"You get to be more and more like Spock every day," Kirk murmured, making Akiko smirk at him, deviously.

"Alright, children, no fighting," Pike chimed in, catching their attentions. "I'm here on orders to get you out of this and on your way to Maunder for the ambassador."

"Thank God," Kirk breathed, dramatically.

"We'll be taking these Tribbles to Genon," Pike reported, making Kirk frown at the Admiral.

"Um, as I recall, that wasn't such a great place for us," he replied. "They captured five of us and we had to escape."

"I remember the report," Pike confirmed. "We won't be going to the surface, we'll just be beaming these things down to the surface."

"Alright," Kirk shrugged. "You're the Admiral."

"Don't get smart," he retorted before turning to Akiko as she stood at attention and he held out his hand. "Lieutenant Akiko Suzuki, I presume."

"Y-Yes, Sir," she nodded with wide eyes, shaking his hand.

"Commander Spock speaks very highly of you," he explained. "I also hear congratulations are in order for the both of you. I'm sorry I missed the wedding."

"Well, it was very…sudden," Akiko replied, not knowing how comfortable she should be with him.

"So I heard," Pike chuckled. "And don't worry about this situation with the Tribbles. I'm sure this won't be the last time we deal with them."

"I hope it's the last time I deal with them," Kirk muttered. "Well, Admiral, shall we head to the bridge and give the coordinates to my navigator?"

Pike nodded and Kirk led the way out of the transporter room, telling Akiko to head back to her post in engineering. She nodded and hurried out of the hall and toward a lift, Pike watching her as they went down the opposite direction.

"She's just as Spock described her," he noticed, turning ahead to watch where he was walking. "She was set here temporarily, but if you want to keep her on permanently, it can be arranged. Your Ensign Fabian will be a difficult fit, though."

"Don't do to me what you did to poor Chekov," Kirk requested as they stepped into a lift to head back to the bridge. "He hardly gets to see Tatiana now that she's on the Pegasus."

"That wasn't my call," Pike reminded him. "I'm still working on that one, but it's difficult. Captain Napier won't give her up that easily after a year."

"Let's focus on the current two for now," Kirk requested. "What if the Ensign stays on as a back up for Sulu? We're always getting fresh cadets for that spot. Why not make her the permanent fixture?"

"I'd have to talk to the other Admirals about it," Pike shrugged when the lift doors opened to the bridge. "In the meantime, let's get these Tribbles out of here and pick up the Ambassador."

"I really appreciate this, Admiral," Kirk said, sincerely as they walked onto the bridge.

"I owe you a lot, Jim," Pike smirked, slapping a hand to the captain's shoulder with a light squeeze. "This is the least I can do."

Kirk smirked with an understanding nod before turning to shuffling toward his captain's chair through the balls of fur.

"Chekov," he called. "Set a course for Genon. Sulu, get us going quick so we can be rid of these things."

"Aye, Sir," both pilot and navigator called, getting to work.


A/N: the adventure mentioned is in my other Star Trek fanfic Medical Marvels. That one is McCoy/OC. (yes, yes. i'm plugging. i dont care)