A/N: I HAVE RELEASED TWO CHAPTERS TODAY – Chapter 15 (Sting like a bee) and Chapter 16 (The fishbowl returneth). This chapter will not make sense if Chapter 15 is not read first.

Also, some of the references in this chapter refer to 'The Vow' and 'Paradise Lost" which are 2 and 2a respectively in the Magnificent Obsession Series. It is not absolutely necessary to read these two stories to understand the references here. However, they are fairly short reads and will both give the reader backstory for context and more perspective.

Chapter Sixteen: The fishbowl returneth

The single portal type window in the office showed a view of the green-gray clouds that seemed close enough to touch. Rain had not yet reached the plateau but would be upon the barracks complex, and the summer encampment, within the next several hours. Then, it would be a never ceasing onslaught for several days while it barreled its way towards the dust storm raging from the opposite direction on the western plain. Like the scorched Desierto de Atacama, the arid wasteland that Romulan orbital drilling had left in its relentless orbital drilling had become a dead zone, sterile and unforgiving; like most of the rest of the planet; the new normal since nearly half-way through the ninety six years of Romulan mining began.

Kirk sat in the chair directly across from Christine, a friend of many years, for a full ten minutes before he spoke. It did not look like she was going to initiate any conversation.

"Chris. I'm so sorry."

She saw the uncertainty, and remorse, on Jim's face and contemplated maintaining the same silence she had asked of Spock more than six years ago.

But what did it matter, now? Releasing Spock from his vow would be the least of their concerns and do neither of them any good. Except possibly to allow him to accept the inevitable. Now it was a matter of embroiling Sarek and the Vulcan High council in the backlash that was likely to happen. Between the rogue commander of the Seleya and Sybok, they had had enough to deal with. Spock would have to know; would have to be warned. Who better to do it than Jim Kirk?

"It isn't your fault, Jim. This is my fault. My responsibility," she said and quietly to herself, 'a prison of my own making...'

"How do you figure that?"

If she had only accepted Spock's marriage proposal, none of this would be happening. She would have been able to take on the forces bent on destroying Q'a'ta'Orbin long ago. She had told Spock she was a coward, and this proved it. All she had left was the memory. Hers and hers alone and her greatest fear now was not simply that she had failed him, and his family, but that the memory of the year they had been together would be forever scarred – smeared with innuendo, twisted with lies, and open to derision. Any privacy they had was about to vanish.

She closed her eyes and sighed. "Because I didn't say yes."

Jim started to ask, 'to what?' but somehow, he knew the answer. He had not even considered that it was not true. The picture fell into place, like a puzzle assembling itself, all the pieces were there, they had only needed context.

"If it was just us...If he was anyone else..." she said, and her voice trailed off.

"But he isn't anyone else."

"No...He is not," she lamented. "He is who he is, and now Sarek's ethics will be called into question and this is going to be..."

"...a shitstorm," Jim finished for her.

'I could not have put it better,' she thought.

"They will try to make it one, Inspector Maalouf and her ilk." She shook her head sadly.

"Well, it's not the first time Sarek's had to weather some kind of scrutiny from Vulcan and the Federation at large. I'm sure he and Vulcan will survive."

"They will survive. But what about Spock's relationship with Vulcan? This is because of me. Because I was so desperate to get to the bottom of what was going on that I appealed to Sarek. That's on me as well. I understood too late the lengths to which some would go to grab this planet and the secrets it holds. Jim, Q'a'ta'Orbin is up for sale – to the highest bidder, or the most ruthless. And different factions have already put in their bids. It is not as if I even know who they are."

"What are you talking about? We've had no intelligence reports to indicate..."

No," she interrupted, "and you won't find any. We reported the shortages, protested the reassignments to no avail. Reports either simply disappeared or they've been extracted or redacted to reflect whatever the powers that be, and I'm including Starfleet Command, want known."

"Conspiracy theories, Christine?"

"Fact, Jim. Once I explain to you the correlations we've put together, you'll understand too." Christine rose and walked toward the decontamination chamber. "Come with me."

The small decontamination room separated the forward and aft sections to maintain a sterile environment for supplies and the laboratory. Both lay behind a hermetically sealed entryway. Only a few sealed packages of disposable protective coveralls lay on the shelves to the right of the decontamination chamber, as that particular item had been the first to go missing from requested supplies. Three reusable hazmat suits hung on hooks to the left.

"The goal is not to protect the CERI personnel but to protect the supplies from contamination," she said as she handed Kirk one of the suits and took one for herself. "Put this on."

Once they had both suited up, she picked up a padd and they entered the decontamination chamber. Once decontaminated, Christine keyed in the code to unlock the entry to the supply storage area where Jim Kirk was greeted by nearly bare shelves.

Handing him the padd, she said, "The first report tracks the supplies that were ordered, what their essential function is and cross references it with the actual shipments we received with copies of the revised orders attached.

"The shipments weren't just shorted...they were revised...?"

"To reflect what was received. Yes."

"How long has this been going on, and why are we just hearing about it now?"

"That," she said, "is a good question. Our theory is in the second report. Allie Gyers has already shown it to Spock. I had planned to share it with you at the same time, until Inspector Maalouf barged in, phasers blazing."

While they toured the large area and Kirk witnessed first-hand how bereft the supplies were, while she explained how she had procured the most essential over the past year and a half, he read the report she had sent to Spock.

"The justification," she said when he had finished and looked up from the padd, "according to Abel, was that the mitigation of the Ebola virus had been accomplished and no trace of it had been found on Q'a'ta'Orbin. Since this had been ahead of predicted timeline, the CERI mission was no longer an 'emergency' and therefore, he had been sent to phase it out. And we both now know the truth of that rationale."

"You're implying that Doctor Seren was duplicitous. I thought he was a friend."

"Abel was...someone I served with. Intuitively, I knew there was always something not right about him...I wanted very much to be wrong. When he was infected, I thought maybe I was wrong."

As they discarded the hazmat suits and Christine was hanging hers up, she froze. Her heartbeat became rapid and she had to hold on to the suit for balance. Her breathing became labored and she struggled to hold on to reality.

"Chris, are you alright?"

"I...I'm okay. I'm sure it's just low oxygen on top of fatigue."

He reached out to help steady her, but she resisted and straightened. "I'm okay, really, Jim."

"We can postpone the meeting at the elder camp. You can get some shut-eye."

"No, that isn't necessary," she said. "Nurse Bridges is waiting for me with some lab results, and then I can get another O2 treatment. I'll be at the enclave in time to meet with the elders."

"You're sure?"

"Yes," she said, and then asked, "Will you talk to Spock? Tell him...?"

With his hand on the back of his neck, he nodded his head and tried to rub out the tension headache he had acquired.

"Yeah, I'll do it." Although he was not at all sure how he would approach the subject.

"When you do...tell him...I release him on the first condition. He will understand."

When Jim Kirk entered the meeting room to find Ensign Vasquez, obviously waiting for direction, and Nurse Lieutenant Bridges with a grim look on her face he took to mean something else.

Understanding that he probably didn't have to say anything to Nurse Bridges, he asked Ensign Vasquez, "What you heard..."

"I'm not sure what you're referring to, Captain."

Leeza concurred without verbal comment and gained some respect for Vasquez in the process.