"Ok, how does that feel?" Elle asked.

Commander Stabby rotated his wheels and rolled forwards. It lowered the single bell and rolled forward again. The bell dinged merrily. He raised the bell and traveled around again. "Acceptable," he reported. "Thanks are given."

"You're welcome," Elle said, amused. "That's the end of your routine maintenance, so you can go."

"That is all," Commander Stabby confirmed, and toodled away.

"Is that a good idea, adding a stealth option to a knife-toting hoover?" Lt. Commander Dahl asked, finishing an oil change on one of Commander Stabby's brethren.

"Easier to sneak up on an intruder," Elle suggested.

-/\-

"Dear Lady Amanda, I successfully negotiated my first peaceful release of the Enterprise from a supposedly superior species. It was absolutely terrifying and I don't know how Sarek and the captain do it all the time. This is why Bones is always harping on the captain about his blood pressure." Elle stopped to giggle. She composed herself and continued recording. "We're back on supernova-charting, which Spock is really excited about. You can tell from the wrinkle next to his eye. I'll try and snap a picture next time he's smiling."

She attached a couple of essays she'd written, and the compressed file of holos and snapshots she'd compiled of Spock, Kirk, and Bones over the last month. Spock knew that Elle was sending his mom potentially embarrassing pictures, but he never said anything (which meant tacit approval).

Elle sent the subpsace email and moved on to her next contact. This was a video file.

"Hey Peter! How's the farm? How's the baby cow? And you need to send me pictures of the baby chickens. Your uncle says hi, and he's sending you something so keep an eye out for it. Okay, so in our minecraft game, I found a crystal cavern, which subspace lag won't let me send you the coordinates so I'm sending them on here because you need this diamond armor..."

She finished her video and added a picture of Kirk mid spit-take at one of Scotty's jokes. That was an appropriately uncle-like image, right? She sent it.

-/\-

"Another day, another supernova," Elle cheered. "Who brought the popcorn?"

"No lightshow just yet," Kirk said, smothering a grin. "We still have three hours, and Beta Niobe has an M-class planet we need to check on."

"At last survey, Sarpeidon was not warp-capable," Spock added.

Kirk frowned. "How many people on that planet?"

"Numbering in the millions, sir," Spock said. His eyebrows went up. "Preliminary scans show... sir, scans show no intelligent life on the planet."

"None?" Kirk asked, coming over to peer at the readout himself. "Where'd they go? Mass suicide?"

"We would see the biomatter," Spock said. "They have disappeared."

Elle frowned. "Sarpeidon... Sarpeidon... this sounds familiar..."

"Another episode?" Chekov said.

"I think so..." Elle tapped her palm against her forehead, trying to remember. "Ugh, I need more context. I can't remember."

"We only have three hours," Kirk said. "Spock?"

"Elle, may I assist you in finding the memory?" Spock asked formally.

Elle nodded. "I think that would be faster."

The three of them moved to the conference room and sat across from each other. Spock led her through calming her mind and then they joined in a light kash-nov. "My thoughts to your thoughts," he murmured.

Elle greeted Spock's mind with a smile, moving aside to show him the episodes. They searched through the episodes together until they came upon an image of Spock and McCoy standing in a blizzard. "This is the one," Elle said.

Spock skillfully drew out the full episode, raising his eyebrows. "Fascinating," he murmured, coming upon the librarian's device. He retreated from her mind with thanks.

Elle opened her eyes, feeling odd in her own skin until she met Kirk's gaze across the room. "They're fine," she said.

"Then why do you have such an odd look on your face?" he asked.

Elle stifled a giggle. "I don't think Spock liked the idea of getting the girl."

Spock gave her a severe eyebrow. "That is not what I find disconcerting."

"What girl?" Kirk asked, lighting up at the idea of teasing his first officer.

"There is no girl," Spock stated. "The Sarpeidon evidently possess the ability to travel in time. They have all gone to different points in Sarpeidon's past. I would not recommend attempting to follow them."

The comm whistled. Kirk tapped at it. "Kirk here."

"Captain, we're reading an energy surge from a point on the planet. There was a life sign, but it's gone now," Chekov said.

"The librarian," Spock murmured. "Presumably the last one to go."

"Well, since we don't have to worry about them, or Spock's girlfriend," Kirk said casually into the open comm, "find us a place to watch the light show, Mr. Sulu."

"Yes sir," Sulu said, after a startled second.

An audible squawk of "Spock has a girlfriend?" came through the comm before it was abruptly closed.

"Sir," Spock said, scandalized.

"I was talking about the time-traveling librarian," Kirk said demurely. "I don't have context for anything else."

Elle restrained her laughter until Spock swept out in a huff of indignant eyebrows, Kirk following him with apologetic puppy eyes. Then she laughed until she cried.

-/\-

"What do you think, Elle?"

"I think you're an incurable romantic and you need to own a real sailboat," Elle replied.

Kirk coughed into his coffee cup. "I meant about the poem, Eleanor."

"Oh." Elle frowned at the poem. "...survivor's guilt. The eternal striving for penance. It's very Catholic." She rested her chin on a closed fist, contemplating the illustration. "But past that... Whatever you do has consequences. I think Coleridge was actually a Vulcan."

Kirk snorted. "Or one of those creative physicists like K't'lk."

"I mean, the more you study quantum mechanics, the more poems like this start to make sense."

"Please don't talk about quantum mechanics. Spock has spent the last four days talking about the inherent principles of energy creation in string theory."

Elle covered a laugh. "Your chess games a little long?"

"He's getting ready to publish in the next quarter. Between him, Scotty, Bones, and Uhura, all our subspace traffic has been peer review."

"Well, you guys are the most popular group of explorers in the galaxy," Elle replied. She tilted her head back and regarded the poem. "Have you thought about reading Shakespeare in the original Klingon?"

Kirk blinked. "Excuse me?"

Elle laughed. "Never mind. Next shore leave can we go sailing?"

"Absolutely."