Chapter Three


The doctor was feeding his Pyrithian bat its evening meal when he heard the sound of someone entering sickbay. After speaking with Captain Archer, Phlox had felt a good deal better. There was something strangely comforting about that particular human. He could make any situation seem more tolerable. But when Phlox turned to see Astrid Zeller looking around his sickbay with eyes that seemed to measure everything and find it wanting, he felt just as miserable as ever.

"Your appear to be out of uniform, Doctor Zeller." Phlox told her, looking at the civilian clothes that she wore. He knew that he would never get the last word, so he had taken the first.

"My commanding officer is in San Francisco, my post is on Vulcan, and my patients are on science station three. I should be wearing a uniform why?" she questioned, putting her hands on her hips.

"No reason." shrugged Phlox.

She laughed aloud and said, "I don't suppose I could bust your chops about your attire, could I?"

"Has anything ever stopped you?" he asked.

"I don't believe it has." she nodded, glancing at the chess board on a nearby table. Astrid Zeller sneered slightly and tossed her head as she asked, "You don't still play, do you, Phlox? I don't hold out much hope for you. I don't think you will ever master such an innately human game."

"The Vulcans have managed to master chess." he pointed out, knowing that if he defended himself, he would be forced to play her.

"Oh, yes, and so have many computers, but it isn't the same thing, I assure you." she countered.

"I still play ... from time to time." he admitted as she transfixed him with an unfriendly, challenging stare.

Doctor Zeller took a seat at the table as though invited and gestured for him to do the same. Phlox was reluctant, not only because she would easily defeat him, but because he would have to talk with her for the better part of an hour.

"Come on, doctor. Show me what you've got." she insisted, a smile of triumph already beginning to pull at her lips.

"Very well." Phlox yielded, frowning as he took a seat. "You will take the white pieces, I suppose?" he questioned.

"For the first game, of course." she said, pursing her lips in what he understood to be mild amusement. When their colleagues had taken to establishing rankings, hers had been one of the very highest in the group. Zeller moved her king's pawn forward two spaces.

"Why do you want to this, Doctor Zeller? You know you will be able to win quite easily." said Phlox with a sigh, sliding one of his pawns forward a single space.

"Is that strategy, Phlox? And what, you won't call me Astrid anymore?" she questioned, declining to give a reply to his query as she partially mimicked his action, choosing the pawn in front of her queen's knight.

"I can, if you would like." he acceded, moving his queen's pawn out to threaten hers.

"Trying to control the center of the board?" she inquired coolly, taking the pawn.

"Perhaps." he said, capturing her pawn. It was not unexpected.

"Did you gain anything from that little exchange, Phlox?" asked Doctor Zeller, chuckling softly.

"That remains to be seen." he replied.

"Cocky. Maybe you are learning something from your human crew mates. After all, you appeared to be assimilating into their culture rather well at lunch today." she commented, moving the bishop on the queen's side a single space.

"Or they could be learning to accept me ... as a Denobulan." he retorted softly before moving the knight on the right side of the board out and toward the center.

She slid the second pawn on her king's side forward a single space with an undisguised smirk. She was playing at least in part to watch him play and judge his skills, testing them for the bigger game to come.

"Is that so, Phlox?" she questioned with a short, mean laugh.

He moved a second pawn to the center of the board and shrugged, "Maybe it's a little of both."

"I like that. The very idea that a ship full of humans ... likes their strange alien doctor. It's quite humorous." she told him, slipping her second bishop forward a space. Her strategy looked defensive to Phlox, but deceptive too. Zeller almost never played it safe.

"I'm glad it amuses you, Astrid." he said, studying the board to avoid looking at her. Moving his queen's bishop forward two spaces, he admitted to her, "I have no idea what you're doing."

"On the board or in conversation?" she asked, responding by moving her queen out in front of her king, which was more in keeping with her usual manner of playing.

The ship's doctor moved his queen diagonally to the right one square before sighing, "And so it begins."

Doctor Zeller moved the knight between her king and rook, accomplishing the dual goal of clearing the space and threatening one of her opponents pawns. Phlox automatically moved a pawn to defend the one threatened. She quietly castled. He slid his second bishop to the side of the first. Astrid moved her second knight toward the center of the board. Phlox hesitated before edging a pawn forward at the far right of the board. In response Astrid moved a central pawn forward two spaces.

"That's how it's done, Phlox." she told him, breaking the silence that had begun to settle over them.

He moved the knight on the left side in front of his king, and said, "Some of us have our own ideas."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Doctor Zeller questioned, looking up sharply from the board.

"Nothing, of course." he said, having the most uncomfortable feeling that he had opened what the Commander Tucker would call a can of worms.

She captured one of his pawns without another word, but Phlox could tell that the inadvertent jibe had bothered her. He responded by taking that pawn in turn with his rightmost bishop. Astrid took the offending piece with the knight on the right side of the board, at least marginally pleased with the exchange. He captured the knight with a pawn, also somewhat satisfied. She moved her unoccupied rook into a position that made it appear as though she were readying her pieces for an offensive. Phlox castled on his queen's side.

"I smell a Jeremy." she chuckled derisively.

"I beg your pardon." said Phlox with a frown.

"Doctor Lucas taught you to do that. I made him afraid of being cornered, or didn't he tell you the rationale behind his strategy?" questioned Zeller.

"He left your name out of it." conceded Phlox.

"Kind of him." she said, reaching to make her next move as the sickbay door behind her hissed open.

"Duty calls." said Phlox, leaving his seat to greet the crewman with the jammed fingers.

"Doc, can I have another hypo of Anaprovalin? My fingers are starting to hurt again." explained his patient.

"And why, pray tell, do you think they are doing that? You haven't been working in engineering again, have you? Certainly not when I expressly told you that doing so would in fact make your fingers hurt." said the doctor, walking over to examine the crewman's injured digits.

"Oh, let the poor boy alone, Phlox, and give him his medicine." sighed Doctor Zeller, who did not approve of his unique bed side manner.
"This is still my sickbay, Astrid. At least until we reach our destination." he shot back at her, filling a hypospray nonetheless.

"Of course, of course." she said, leaning back in her chair and watching him administer the hypo to the crewman.

"Watch that hand for a day or so, crewman." Phlox warned him before sending him on his way.

"Sure, doc. Thanks." he replied, glancing curiously at Astrid Zeller and the chess board on his way out.

"A human doctor would have made a more thorough examination." Doctor Zeller told Phlox pointedly as he returned to seat.

"I did so this morning. Anaprovalin is not addictive, and if the crewman says that his fingers hurt, then I imagine that they do." he explained. "It's your move, Astrid."

"Defensive are we?" she questioned, moving her rook out of its castled position. Something about her strategy reminded him of a cunning, but wild beast preparing to strike.

He edged his leftmost pawn forward and asked, "Wouldn't you be?"

"Perhaps." she admitted with a slight shrug, glancing at his side of the board. "We were discussing Jeremy Lucas." she said, moving her remaining knight up and toward the board's edge.

Phlox moved a central pawn forward a space and question quietly, "Oh? Were we now?"

"Do you hear from him?" she inquired, moving a pawn to threaten his. Hers was well defended.

"We exchange correspondence from time to time. He is on Denobula, you know." Phlox informed her as he advanced a peripheral pawn.

"Is he still an alien-lover or has the clash of cultures been significant enough to frighten him?" Astrid asked him casually, proving that her threat was not an idle one as she captured one of his pawns.

"Careful, or I might take offense." he told her, ignoring the question, but not its obvious implications. He captured the pawn that he had threatened, the idea of a goose and gander crossing his mind for some strange reason.

She captured another one of his pawns near the center of the board and commented, "But you never take offense, Phlox. Why change now?"

Taking the marauding pawn with his bishop he vacillated and replied, "No reason, I suppose."

"But really, Phlox, how is the inestimable Doctor Lucas?" she pressed, taking his bishop with her own, which seemed as though it had eagerly awaited the opportunity.

"Jeremy is doing well. His letters contain nothing but good news and glad tidings." he answered in mild exaggeration, taking the bishop with his knight and wondering if their little exchanges were starting to prove too costly. "I take it that you don't hear from our colleagues often." he hedged.

"Frankly, I do not, but that is hardly surprising, is it? None of you people understood me nor my ideas." she said, placing a special stress on the possessive. Astrid Zeller never forgot a jibe, no matter how insignificant. She moved her queen forward, lining it up diagonally with his king. "Check." she said perfunctorily.

Phlox moved his king out of the way and said, "Understanding was never our problem."

"Are you aware of both meanings of that statement?" she asked, sitting up straight in her chair, but continuing the game as she captured his leading knight with her queen side rook.

"Yes, Astrid, indeed I am." he said shortly, moving the rook involved in his castle to threaten her queen.

"Well, you have a firm grasp of the English language, and for that I congratulate you." she said, choosing to take the rook instead of being intimidated. "Check." she stated impatiently.

"Thank you. I see your sarcasm has not been diminished by your time on Vulcan." he said, taking her queen with the rook that was waiting in the wings, so to speak.

"It's the only form of humor that those green blooded cretins even begin to understand." she told him, taking his second rook with her own and sighing, "Check."

"I hardly think that cretin is a fair descriptor for the Vulcan people. They have a rich and fascinating culture from what I understand." said Phlox, unhappily moving his king out of check.

She moved her second rook up and said, "Well, one man's trash is another man's treasure."

Phlox moved a pawn, attempting to find the best way to prevent his king from being trapped. She shifted her remaining bishop to the edge of the board. It was beginning to feel like cat and mouse to both of them. It made Doctor Zeller smile, but Phlox only mentally acknowledged it as inevitable. He moved one of his few remaining pawns toward her edge of the board, close to her king, while keeping it within the protection of his queen.

"Say it." Astrid instructed him.

Phlox rolled his eyes and said, "Check."

"You have me on the run." she laughed, the very definition of a poor sportsman. Zeller moved her king between his pawn and its destination. "Would you have wanted an extra queen?" she questioned, faintly mocking him.

"This game brings out the worst in people." he said, sliding his queen a couple of spaces to the right.

"What? Competition? Intellect? Cunning?" she scoffed as she moved a rook down one rank. "Check." she said with a smile.

"It makes one feel rather calculating, even if one is not winning." he explained, taking the rook with his knight.

She moved the other rook down too and said simply, "Check."

Phlox moved his king into the corner of the board, noting that she was momentarily neglecting the argument. She took one of his unmoved pawns with her knight.

"Check." she sighed, propping up with one arm. "What's wrong with feeling calculating, by the way?" Doctor Zeller asked.

Phlox moved his king into the only available position and said, "I have never thought of it as a particularly nice feeling."

She moved her bishop to threaten his king and said, "Maybe you would if you won more often." Astrid smiled in the most annoying, self-satisfied way possible as she told him, "Checkmate."

"Good game, Astrid." said Phlox, who had some concept of what it meant to be a good sport.

"Oh, another Jeremy-ism." she laughed.

"I believe it is." said Phlox with an approving smile.

"Shall we play a rematch?" Zeller asked him.

"Not tonight, Astrid. I'm afraid that I just don't have the energy." he replied, hoping that she wouldn't insist.

"Another time then." she said with a nod and slight sneer as she left her seat.

"Yes." he agreed reluctantly.

She turned to go, but stopped at the door and informed him, "I plan on inspecting your sickbay tomorrow. I trust you will be available."

"As my other duties permit." he sighed. "Good night, Astrid."

She laughed and said, "It sounds so quaint when you say it. Until tomorrow, Phlox."

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