"Nanny Banks to the bridge at once! Nanny Banks to the bridge at once!" The command shocked Carolyn just as she slid the finished meatloaf into the small oven. Setting the timer, she glanced at the chronometer to see if she'd need to find someone else to meet Jamie after her learning cycle. The Captain didn't like any of the children wandering around the ship unattended. No, there was still plenty of time.
Wondering why she'd been called to the bridge, Carolyn hurried out of the quarters and to the turbo-lift. "Bridge," she said and then the horrible thought hit her. Maybe the Captain had found out about Varoom borrowing the credits? Maybe it was against the rules or something to loan them. Her stomach twisted into a knot and suddenly she took back everything she'd said about the Captain's daughter being a brat. Jamie wasn't a bad little kid. She was lonely and scared and terribly homesick, but she'd never really caused any trouble. This job was the easiest she'd ever had and suddenly, Carolyn didn't want to lose it. Not even for Varoom.
##############
"Ava Balderdasian to the bridge at once! Ava Balderdasian to the bridge at once!"
Ava didn't have to wonder why she was being called to the bridge. Especially when she heard the call go out for the head of Security, Clark Z. right afterward. Someone had either found Jamie or discovered she was missing.
There goes my status in Starfleet, she thought. Two years running, she'd won the award for Best Teacher in Starfleet. She had the respect of her peers and her crewmates, the joy of seeing numerous children learn and grow. This job on the Enterprise had taken a toll on her from the beginning and it had only been three short months of regular time! Ava was used to a relaxed, open teaching environment. But with the children's deck still being finished in space, she'd had to follow the Captain's ridiculous, strict rules. It made her uncomfortable and she'd bent the rules at every opportunity, hoping he wouldn't find out. Now she'd lost the Captain's daughter and it would all end. All those years of working three jobs to put herself through college and then the Academy. All the sacrifices she'd made so she could travel through space and make a difference. All over.
"I'll be back in a little while," she told the curious children in the learning cycle who looked up at the strident command issuing from the intership communication device. Only Centauri and Javik knew the truth, although the others must wonder where Jamie had disappeared. "Javik," she addressed the most responsible of the olders, "you're in charge until I return."
If I do . . .
She headed for the turbolift like a prisoner on the way to her own execution.
"Bridge," she said as she stepped inside.
The horrible thought crossed her mind as she rode upward to her doom. What if Jamie had been hurt? I'll never forgive myself.
############
Carolyn Banks arrived on the bridge first. As she stepped out of the turbo lift, the Captain barked and just about snapped her head off with his rapid fire questions.
"Where's my daughter?"
Surprised a little by the Captain's fierce, glaring eyes and the muscles twitching in his jaws, Carolyn tried to keep her composure. "Jamie's in learning cycle right now." When that didn't appear to faze his angry countenance, she stumbled on. "After that she goes to recreation and then to her third meal. I've made a meat . . ."
"That is not where my daughter is at!" He interrupted her.
Tears prickled Carolyn's eyes at this unexpected attack. Usually the Captain was so civil about Jamie and her activities. He asked a lot of questions and demanded answers, but not like this . . . not as if he were trying to find out what she'd done wrong. Carolyn couldn't think of anything she'd done wrong . . . unless he knew about Varoom and the credits. But what would that have to do with Jamie?
"Do you know where my daughter is?"
"She's in her learning cycle," Carolyn repeated again, willing herself not to cry. "Isn't she?"
"Uhura, put the picture up on the screen."
To Carolyn's horror, she saw Jamie, lying on a bunk behind what looked like a prison force field. The image took her breath away and twisted her stomach into knots of panic.
"My daughter is in the Mavaro Prison for trying to get into the fun park without paying. Now, how do you explain that?"
"I . . . I can't, sir. I took her to learning cycle and haven't seen her since."
"Jim," the doctor came up and just barely tapped the Captain's shoulder, "she doesn't know anything. Stop badgering her."
Visibly, the Captain's temper simmered down and he took a couple of deep breaths. "I'm sorry, Nanny Banks," he said. "Obviously, you'll have to excuse my anger. I'm trying to find out how this could have happened."
"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't tell you." A few tears dripped out of Carolyn's eyes. "You'll get her back, won't you?"
"I plan on it," the Captain answered. He turned as the turbo lift whooshed open and let someone else onto the bridge. Carolyn saw her friend, Ava, and the fear in her eyes.
"Miz Balderdasion," the Captain turned to her and snapped the same question, "where is my daughter?"
To Carolyn's shock, Ava's eyes went wide as a moon and her voice trembled, "I don't know, Captain. I haven't seen her since second meal."
"Isn't she supposed to be in learning cycle?" He demanded an answer, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "With you?"
"She was, Sir, but . . ." Ava burst into tears, covered her face with her hands and spoke through them, "I lost her, Sir."
"You lost my daughter?" If he had screamed the words, they couldn't have sounded more ominous, but the Captain barely whispered the question in a deadly, quiet tone. "Well, thankfully, Miz Balderdasian, I've found her."
"Oh, thank goodness!" Ava lowered her hands and swiped them across her drippy eyes. Although her cheeks were red and glistened with tears, she smiled as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from her shoulders. "I'm so grateful . . ."
Before she could finish, he had Lt. Uhura put Jamie's picture up again. This time Ava's face expressed the same horror Carolyn still felt. In that same deadly tone, the Captain announced, "My daughter is now a guest of the Mavaro Prison System."
To everyone's shock, Ava's eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted. If Dr. McCoy hadn't caught her, she'd have hit her head as she went down. Carolyn couldn't believe how badly the Captain was behaving. Without caring at all about Ava, he stepped over her and said, "Bones, take care of her. I've got to figure out how to get Jamie back. Mr. Spock, Uhura, Sulu . . . to the briefing room, please. We need a plan. Checkov, you have the com."
The Captain and Officer's all got up and went to the turbo-lift as Dr. McCoy was calling for help from sickbay. Carolyn stood abandoned on the bridge staring at Jamie's frightened little face filling the viewscreen. Her stomach churned and she expected any second to lose the bagels and cream cheese she'd eaten for second meal. Not sure where to go or what to do, she followed along to Sickbay with Dr. McCoy and the nurses who'd come to pick up Ava on a liter. Ava would need a friend when she woke up.
As for Jamie, the Captain wouldn't leave his daughter down on the planet. Would he?
########
"It's the only plan we have," the Captain spoke with a weariness in his voice, his shoulders slumped and his face set in lines of pain. An hour of precious time had already slipped away while they discussed and discarded several options to get Jamie back. Legally or otherwise. The shields around the prison were so dense it was impossible to even know where she was being held. No chance of beaming her up. A rescue operation from the planet was also laid on the table and canned. Their only option was to propose a bribe to King Hescate, something he couldn't refuse. "We'll see what the Ambassador says first, but knowing Starfleet . . ."
The others in the briefing room all nodded. If Starfleet didn't offer any hope, they would do it the Captain's way. Illegally.
"If any of you would rather not be involved in this," he went around the table and waited for an answer from each one. "I won't hold it against you. I'm willing to take full responsibility for my actions and inform Starfleet you were forced to obey my orders."
"I'm sure I speak for everyone," Uhura spoke up, "when I say that we are certainly willing to do whatever is necessary to get Jamie back onboard. She's always been a part of all our lives too, Captain. Like she belongs to all of us."
A brief, poignant smile flickered across the Captain's face. "Thank you," he whispered. "Then we are all agreed?"
Everyone agreed. They would play the Captain's hand and hope it worked. That Jamie would soon be back onboard the Enterprise. Any other possibility was unacceptable.
Uhura's heart ached for the Captain as they exited the room and went back to their stations.
"Uhura, open hailing frequencies to the Apollonian. I'll speak to Ambassador McCale."
It didn't take long for the Ambassador's craggy face to appear on the screen. Apparently, by the grimace around his lips, he didn't appreciate the rather rough ride of the space freighter or it's lack of luxury accommodations. Any other time, Jim would have hidden a smirk at the man's discomfiture. Today, the situation was too serious to waste time with joking or feeling arrogant about the top brass at Starfleet seeing how the other half lived.
"Captain Kirk! I hope things are going well on Mavaro. How are the negotiations going toward getting them to use Starfleet's shipping services? Has the King mentioned if he plans to choose us over the Romulans?"
Uhura's sympathy went out to the Captain as he began to explain the dilemma to the Ambassador. With years of experience at hiding his true feelings, the Ambassador didn't move a muscle as Captain Kirk proposed a solution to the impasse. She held her breath, hoping for once that they'd found someone in Starfleet's top brass with a heart. Instead, she released her breath in an angry snort as the Ambassador began to shake his head of massive dark wavy locks.
"Impossible." That one word sealed the Captain's plan and Uhura wanted to break off the hailing frequencies, to feign interspace static so he couldn't say another word. As a good Officer, she knew she couldn't, but oh, how she wanted to. "Do you know how long the Federation has hoped to bring Mavaro into the fold, so to speak? Diplomats have worked many years to bring us to this point where they are even considering our shipping lines. Offering a bribe would be a most distasteful . . . option . . . hardly worthy of the Federation . . ."
"My daughter is in prison, may I remind you," the Captain's words were clipped as tight as Martian paperclips. "My barely nine-year-old daughter. I don't intend to leave her there to serve her time for committing some trussed-up crime she probably didn't even understand."
The Ambassador spoke in soothing, what the Captain called, Diplomeese. "I'm certain I can appreciate your concern, Captain Kirk. However, the negotiations with Mavaro are at a crucial point. To upset the delicate balance right now would be foolhardy. I'm sure the child is being taken care of quite well. Mavaro prides itself on their well-run prison system. Just wait a day or two until we arrive. I'm sure I can speak to the King and get this matter satisfactorily taken care of without upsetting the Mavaronians."
"And if you can't? Am I supposed to leave my only child rotting in a prison cell?"
"Captain Kirk," the Ambassador chuckled, "you have a rather short-sighted view of the situation. Perhaps you need to ask yourself some hard questions. Your child is on the planet. How did she get there? If she went as a stowaway on one of your shuttlecraft, perhaps you should be investigating that. It seems there might be some disciplinary action you need to take from your end. Maybe a few short days in the Mavaro Prison might teach the little girl a much needed lesson. You, after all, are one of the main movers and shakers behind this Children in Space program. I'm sure you wouldn't want anyone to look at this little incident and find cause to end the program before it's begun. Especially not because of your child."
It was a threat and everyone knew it. Uhura gasped out loud and covered her mouth with her hand. She'd never heard anyone, and she knew a lot of callous people in Starfleet, treat a child's life so lightly.
Everyone on the bridge saw the Captain's hands clench around the arms of his chair. Uhura knew the superhuman effort it cost him to remain seated, to stare at the Ambassador without calling him every curse word he'd ever learned.
"I absolutely forbid you to offer the King the bribe you propose, Captain," the Ambassador said. "That is a direct order, Mister. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal," the Captain snapped with an insolence the Ambassador didn't seem to like.
A short lecture on the duties of a starship Captain followed. Shortly after that, Uhura cut the communication and waited to see what the Captain had planned.
"Uhura, open hailing frequencies to Mavaro. See if you can get me into communication with the King. Tell him I have a . . . let's call it a trade to propose. Something that will interest him."
"Yes, Captain."
She watched Mr. Spock leave his station and go to stand beside the Captain's chair, as if to support his action. Sulu and Checkov exchanged looks but didn't speak a word. Would the Captain deliberately disobey a direct order from the Ambassador? They were all wondering the same thing. He didn't leave them in doubt long.
Standing, the Captain tugged down his gold shirt and stood a little taller. "I'm sure you all heard the Ambassador forbid me to offer the King a year of free shipping services from Starfleet." The Captain grinned that lopsided, little-boy-in-a-cookie-jar grin that Uhura had come to know and love. "Well, I'm sure all of you are witnesses to the fact that he did not forbid me from offering him a lesser amount of shipping time."
"Indeed," Mr. Spock said. "The Ambassador did only specify a year."
Sulu and Checkov were both grinning as wide as their ears and Uhura saw some light at the end of the tunnel.
"Hailing frequencies open, Captain. King Hescate is willing to talk to you."
"Put him on the screen."