"Captain's log, stardate 56842.2, Commander Kirk reporting: We have arrived in sector 23, the home of Starbase 173. The sensor mask has continued to function adequately, though we did have a few hiccups yesterday. Our senior systems engineer decided to test the computer by running a holodeck simulation of a classic baseball game. Unfortunately, there was some kind of bleedthrough between holographic projections. From what I'm told, we were flying around looking like Fenway Park for at least four hours. Thankfully, no one saw us. We're back to looking like a pretty pathetic replica of the medical frigate USS Nightengale. I'm not sure where the actual ship is, but it's nowhere around here. That's all I care about. We'll be dropping Captain Velasquez off within the hour. Dr. Rass' neurologist friend is already set to receive her. I've decided we'll continue weapons testing in the Dedry nebula. It's only a couple of hours from Starbase 173 and its composition severely restricts sensors. We may not be able to see what's coming at us, but no one will know we're in there. We can afford to test in there as long as necessary and continue to check on the Captain's progress. Geez... I have to learn to stop rambling into this thing. End log entry."

"Commander," Leiutenant Davies announced, "I have Starbase 173 on the line. As you requested, I told them we were having some computer difficulties so audio communication is all we currently have available."

Kirk nodded from the captain's chair. "They bought it?"

Elaine shrugged. "Well, they didn't ask ME anything about it."

Kirk shrugged, too. "Good. Put them over the speakers, Leiutenant."

With a few taps against her control panel, she replied, "You're on, Commander."

Sounding as authoritative as possible, he sat up in his chair and straightened his overshirt. "Starbase 173, this is the USS Nightengale, over."

A crackly and gruff voice came over the internal overhead speaker. "This is Leiutenant Loth. I hear you have a patient for one of our doctors."

"That's correct," Kirk replied, somewhat relieved there weren't any questions regarding the Nightengale's condition or crew. "If you'll give us the coordinates, we'll beam her over."

"I'm transmitting the coordinates for the triage section now." The reply sounded bored.

Kirk looked down from the speaker to Elaine. "Leiutenant, send those coordinates down to the transporter room." He felt a little guilty not being there to help put her on the transporter. He had considered it for a long while, but determined his presence would be better suited here, in case the Starbase personnel started asking questions. Happily and regretfully, there were no questions so far.

The bridge overhead speaker popped. A voice unfamiliar to Kirk spoke. "Bridge, this is the transporter room. We have the coordinates. The doc gave me the okay, so I'm sending the Captain across."

Kirk instinctively looked up at the speaker. "Understood, transporter room. Bridge out." For the life of him, he could never figure out what it was about human nature that forced him to look at a speaker when he talked to it.

Several moments later, the speaker popped, "Nightengale, this is Starbase 173. We have your captain. Feel free to dock at pylon four. The lane is clear."

"Um..." Kirk stammered, "We appreciate the offer, but we have, um...some... experiments to perform in the Dedry nebula. We'll be back periodically to check on her progress." T'Nia gave him a curious eye and mouthed the word "experiments". Kirk only shrugged his shoulders in response.

"The Dedry nebula?" the gruff station operator questioned. "What in the world do you have to do in there? The whole thing is one ionized mess."

"Well," Kirk stumbled again, "they're classified. They involve some... sensitive... medical... stuff." Kirk winced at the word 'stuff'. T'Nia rolled her eyes. The remainder of the bridge crew was torn between laughter and worry.

"Right." The operator sounded unconvinced. "Hey, whatever you do on that ship of yours is your business. Just let me know when you come back around. Starbase 173 out." The speaker popped indicating the connection had closed between the starbase and the ship.

Kirk collapsed in the captain's chair with a heavy breath. The crew began laughing. T'Nia almost smiled. "'Sensitive medical STUFF?'" she repeated with a raised eyebrow. The laughter increased.

"Hey, it was all I could think of off the top of my head. Jeez... the guy probably thinks this is a big orgy ship or something." The laughter increased yet again. Stephen shook his head. He let himself relax just a bit. The past couple of days had been somewhat stressful with the engines continually running hot, the latency problem with the computer, systems blinking in and out, and the captain being unconscious throughout all of it. He decided to laugh, too.

Eventually, Kirk turned to his helsman, who was quite red-faced with laughter. "Bristol."

"Yes, Sir?" Tyler replied, still laughing.

"When you've finished having fun at my expense, get us into the nebula." Kirk said with a smile. He arbitrarily pointed forward with his finger.

"Aye, aye, Commander," Ensign Bristol replied, trying to sound professional. He was going to like it here after all. Tyler had been nervous about accepting this position, since he had only served aboard the Lancaster for a year. "Setting course for the Dedry nebula." His hands passed easily among the controls. Slowly, eventually, the ship responded.