Thank you all for the wonderful praise of the last set. I'm a littele hit miss these days, but I've just made a deal that will secure fic themes for the forseeable future. ----best Lando voice. Thanks Mira!

Continuing Voyages

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Captain James T. Kirk ran an exasperated hand through his hair and let out long whistle. Before him, on his desk sat seven PAAD's containing each department's budget request for the year. He had no desire to read them. In fact, he preferred to assign the duty to his second officer, but that would not go over well with Starfleet commend. He was captain. He was expected to do the mundane as well as the exciting. Picking up the first data pad, he saw Scotty's plan for the year. Was that much copper tubing really necessary? After making a few cuts, He set the pad aside. Six more to go.

Footnotes

McCoy entered the turbo lift on deck six to a wistful looking Kirk.

"What you smiling about?" he grumbled in Kirk's general direction.

"Date with Christine last night."

"Ah. Wonderful."

"It was."

"Look, since you're in such a good mood, I need to talk to you about something."

"Don't worry, Bones, I've kept the secret this long, why would I tell anyone now?"

"What the hell are you talking about? Wait, I don't care about that and don't try to change the subject."

Kirk folded his arms and waited.

"Chekov has been having some morale issues lately and it might do him well to here that he's doing a good job."

Kirk's opened a little and he looked at McCoy dumbly. "Are you serious?"

"Very," McCoy replied, not breaking eye contact with the captain. "The kid's shy, Jim, but he's also brilliant. He's also young and a long way from home."

"Better and better. Who am I, the kid's father?"

McCoy intensified his gaze. "For all intents and purposes, yes. Now give him a pat on the back and tell him you're proud of him."

Margins

When McCoy exited the turbolift and entered engineering, he was met first by the slight rise in temperature, but also the calming din of the warp engine and accompanying systems. Though he seldom came to this part of the ship, he was always surprised by how big it was; so many stairs and pipes and computers. And, high ceilings; really high ceilings.

McCoy shook his head. Soaking up the atmosphere of the ships engine room was not the purpose of this trip. He wanted to see if Scotty experienced the same treatment of his supply requisition.

He found the feisty engineer sitting at his desk, which was open to the rest of the room.

"Well this is odd," McCoy joked to Scotty's back. "I expected to find you hip deep in grease, oil, or whatever other fluids you work with down here."

Scotty swiveled around and smiled at the doctor. "Only every now and then, Doc. I like to be in the thick of it, but I also have other people to do it for me. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

McCoy returned the smile, while tapping the PAAD against his thigh. "I just got my budget request returned from the Captain. He butchered it."

Scotty tapped his computer monitor with his knuckles. "Mine too! He actually sent it back with red lines through his cuts and notes in the margins. What's gotten into the lad?"

McCoy arched an eyebrow and frowned. "I don't know. But I'm going to find out. I'm not sure he knows exactly how his cuts will affect us in the long run. Want to come with me?"

"Not this time, Doctor. I have grease to attend to."

Red Ink

McCoy entered Kirk's ready room holding a PAAD and wearing a disgruntled scowl.

"What is this?" he asked, lightly tossing the data pad onto Kirk's desk.

Kirk picked it up and gave it a cursory once over. "It looks like your inventory requisition request."

Pointing at the pad, McCoy said: "That's not my request. What the hell did you do to it?"

"Bones," Kirk began congenially.

"Don't 'Bones' me. Just tell me why you edited my request. I need everything I asked for."

"Dr. McCoy, then," Kirk stated, more officious this time. "My command is under the biggest electron microscope Starfleet has. I need to come in under budget. Not over budget. Not at budget. Under budget."

"So you cut my supplies?" McCoy answered incredulously.

"I had to, Bones. You'll be happy to know yours is not the only affected department."

"I'm not happy at all, Jim. Did you arbitrarily cut the other departments, too? Did you think that if you were going to do something this major, you might want to meet with the department heads?"

"Umm, no," Kirk said, beginning to see how he might have erred.

"I know this is a military ship with a chain of command, but, Jim. But this is the kind of thing that make people angry."

Masterpiece

During his debriefing on the Naraada Incident, one question that kept popping into Kirk's mind was: What are the Romulans making of all this? The admirals told him it was nothing he needed to worry about. 'We have diplomats for that', they said. Given that fact that he was now under attack by a Romulan vessel, Kirk wondered about the masterpiece of diplomatic writing which comprised the existing treaty.

"Lines were drawn, Captain," the Romulan Commander sneered. "You have crossed those lines.

"Far be it from me to remind you, Commander, but we are both in neutral territory. You firing on my vessel merely for coming here, is an act of war."

The Romulan smiled derisively. "You have returned fire, Captain. It appears we are at an impasse."

Kirk showed a bewildered smirk. "For a xenophobic people, you come off mighty aggressive."