Chapter Two

At dinner in the mess hall that evening, Kathy took her tray over to where Liz was sitting.

"Hi, mind if I join you?"

"Sure. Plenty of room." Liz indicated the three empty chairs. Then looking at her friend, remarked, "You seem a bit worried. Is anything wrong?"

Kathy sighed, pushed the food around on her plate a bit, then said, "You could say that. The tribble..."

"What? Has it escaped?"

"No. Worse than that."

"What could be worse?"

"Having eleven of them?"

"Eleven?" Liz almost squeaked. "What do you mean?"

"I had one. Now I have eleven. You work it out."

"You mean it has...?"

"Reproduced. Yes. It must have been already pregnant."

"Oh, no!"

"Oh, yes. It was one thing hiding one on the ship till we get back to Earth. Hiding eleven is going to be much more of a problem."

"Yeah, I'll bet. Where are you going to keep them? And have you found out what they eat, yet?"

"One was happy in a box in my quarters, but I don't think eleven will be so obliging once they grow a bit. As for food, they seem to eat anything I put out for them, though I haven't actually seen them eating. The food just disappears."

"And what have you offered them?" asked Liz.

"All sorts. Fruit, sandwiches, cheese, chocolate. I haven't tried meat, yet. I don't think I like the idea of them being meat-eaters."

"Well, if they eat cheese, at least they are getting protein. I suppose you could try eggs, too."

"But where am I going to get all this from? Feeding one would have been simple enough, but now there are eleven..." Kathy groaned in despair.

"Why don't you give them away?" Liz suggested. "I'm sure other crewmembers will be keen to have one, when they know about them."

"That's a good idea. Then I'd only have the one to feed and house again." Kathy looked a little more cheerful.

Shortly after, they left the mess hall planning who they would offer the tribbles to.

"There's Keeley. She's nuts about small furry things."

"And Namon."

"Yes. And what about Kelly?"

"Nah. She's too close to Commander Tucker."

"That's true. Massaro?"

"Dillard."

"Macarthur?"

"Almack?"

"Fuller..."

The ten baby tribbles were duly rehomed in different crew quarters around the ship, but well away from the senior officers quarters on B deck, and the captain's quarters.

At mealtimes, certain crewmen could be seen loading their trays with more than they would normally eat, and then, having sat at a table, they would surreptitiously wrap a number of food items in a napkin to take back to their pets.

The baby tribbles grew rapidly – very rapidly! Then the day after getting her new pet, Crewman Shelley Massaro caught up with Kathy in the corridor outside her quarters and hissed in her ear, "My tribble has just had eight babies!"

"What?" Kathy gasped. "It can't have. It's less than twenty-four hours old."

"Come and see for yourself." And she pulled Kathy along the corridor to her own quarters.

"There!" she said, dramatically. "Now do you believe me?"

Kathy looked at the 'nest' of one large and eight small tribbles in the middle of Shelley's bunk, and groaned.

"I think I'd better check on the others," she said. "I hope they haven't reproduced, too. If they have, this is going to be disastrous."

She was out of luck. Within twenty-four hours all nine of the others had given birth to between seven and twelve babies.

This was getting out of hand. First there was one, then eleven, and now – she did some quick calculations – there must be about a hundred of them.

The Captain would be sure to find out soon. And then what...?

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