Student Captains – Chapter 6

A/N: SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY. I'm not very punctual. But, by popular -or more like one person's- demand, a taste of Melissa for you!

"Pavel, Pavel, Pavel, Pavel…" The repetitive sound was emitted from a bouncing nine year old.

"Vut Melissa?" Chekov finally turned around, and yelled at her. She didn't seem to care about his anger.

"Our shift is ooover!" She said in a sing-songy voice. "C'mon, lets go play dress up?"

Half groaning, half squeaking, he said, "Aren't you a little old for zat, Melissa?"

She looked from person to person, "They don't know that!" she made a little giggle with blush to match. She snatched his hand with a grip that was far too strong for a girl of that age to have. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon-"

"Fine!" Chekov surrendered, and Sulu cast a glance to his poor friend and said with a sympathetic face,

"Send me the photos."

Whimpering, Chekov was lead out of the bridge and into a dress.

It'd been an early shift for James Kirk. He got up out of bed, washed up and was feeling good – and then remembered he had to rouse his little pain in the neck.

He threw back his head and asked whatever was up there, 'why me?' and then went on his way to the children's quarters. When he went to the side of Jay's bed, there was a lump under the pillows. Jim put a hand over it and shook it vigorously.

No response.

Peeling back the covers, what was revealed were three pillows. And no brat.

This couldn't be good.

Running up to the bridge, trying (and failing) to look calm and collected, he pushed the comm.. "Jay Loquin, Report to the bridge immediately. Jay Loquin."

A response hailed him immediately after. "You lost him?" McCoy laughed through the speaker.

"Get off the line, Bones!" he flicked the switch to end the transmission.

Kirk put his forehead to his hand, this whole ordeal was giving him a headache. Repeating his message, he then added, "To any crewmembers, if you catch sight of Jay Loquin, comm. the bridge immediately. Thank you."

The transmitter beeped. He stabbed his finger on the button and Spock's voice came through. "Captain, Kenneth is not in his quarters either."

"I bet their in the same place. Spock, meet me in Rec Room four, be there in a minute."

"Yes captain, Spock out."

"Sulu, you've got command."

"But sir, you could just send a search party-" Sulu objected.

"I have my reasons, helmsman. And you have your orders."

"Yes sir."

Kirk scurried out of the bridge and into the turbo lift. After getting off he ran to the Rec Room to find his first officer sitting there, punctual as ever. "Where do you think they are?"

"I do not know Captain. Although we could ask the other children if they saw anyone leaving."

"Alright. You question the kids, I'll go look. I have an okay idea for where they might be."

"What, Captain?" Spock said almost dumbly. He seemed suddenly ruffled.

"You heard me perfectly fine Spock. Go ask around, I'm carrying my communicator incase you need me. See you soon, I hope." And with that he trotted off the other way.

Dealing with children had never been a strength of Spocks'. As a child he had been the center of cruel jokes and laughter because of his mother's humanity. As an adult he had tried to become as Vulcan as possible – emotionless, unfeeling. Although his friends, Jim and McCoy, continued to remind him of his failure as a Vulcan, because they could see through his neutral mask.

But being around kids was just plain awkward.

He was mildly aware of how the children saw him. A tall, serious man who had neither intention nor time for mingling. He was viewed that same way by many a crew of the enterprise as well.

This made it difficult for him to talk to children. He didn't have a good time in childhood and the irrational state of mind of Vulcan children – much worse, human children – overwhelmed him.

Why did Jim assign him this?

They'd crossed paths with beings that'd like to suck the life out of them for experiments, they'd hunted down a lava monster that ate through rock and people, they'd even saved the universe as we know it once or twice over – but talking to sticky fingered earth kids was beyond him.

Hopefully, this would all be over in a week.

Spock entered the children's quarters. It was still fairly early and half of them were still sleeping, although some stirred on their beds, fidgeting with music pods and whatnot. The Vulcan approached a girl who, in turn, was looking at him. He remembered now, this was Ginger. McCoy's assistant.

No, he was not in the mood for sarcasm, but neither did he want a bedwetting tot who probably didn't speak language quite fluently. Besides, making friends (especially with children) wasn't really in his skill set.

"Ginger, I have come to ask a few questions."

She looked at his eyes with a factor of coolness and uncaring. "Yea?"

"Did you take note of Kenneth and/or Jay leaving this room prior to now?"

Ginger almost wanted to say 'now again in english' but something told her this probably wasn't the right person to mess with. In fact, she had heard the annoying voices of squeaky boys.

"Yea. They were talking around two-ish. Keeping me up."

"Two-ish, Ms. Broughton?"

"I forgot we're on this stupid spaceship time. About fourteen hundred hours. They left a little later."

"Did they come back?"

"No." She replied, thinking about any noises she heard.

"What were they speaking about?"

Ginger sighed on her bunk. "I don't know. Something about pulling a prank. And girls." She exhaled and put her face in her palm. "I'm going back to sleep."

Spock found no better cue than such to tell him to get the heck out of there. Although he'd never 'pranked' anyone before, he knew the meaning of the word quite well from childhood experiences.

Instantly he was aware that the next few hours were not going to be fun.

A/N: Sorry. I don't update nearly enough. Suggestions for what's going to happen…perhaps a PLOT TWIST? I got nothing, lol. Reviews are always cherished and make my day that much better.