Chapter 3

This is short-sorry! The storyline wouldn't flow properly otherwise. I'll make up for this short chapter with a long chapter 4.

Finally, finally, finally, some action. The three cadets—two males and a female—who edged cautiously around the door were certainly not any of the group Jim had left behind with SEl'kna in the docking bay. Bones and Uhura immediately had their phasers trained on the cadets in seconds. Before Jim's brain processed what he was doing, he was on his feet and advancing toward the three cadets, his own phaser trained on them. "Drop your weapons!" Jim heard himself bark out. The cadets jumped, and quickly complied. Jim jerked his head; Uhura scrambled to collect the phasers while Jim and Bones kept the cadets under guard.

"Have a seat, fellas," Jim invited, not lowering his phaser. "Might as well get comfy; we'll be here a while."

It was gonna be a long weekend if the cadets trickled into the commissary one by one. Maybe they could rely on Nelk'knah to help coerce the others to the commissary so they could get to the rub of the problem?

Pushing that thought aside, Jim sat down at the same table as the newcomers. Luckily this commissary was big—he estimated it was large enough to hold nearly everyone who normally staffed Alpha Base. Hopefully that would be enough to hold everyone currently in Alpha Base.

"So," Jim began. He didn't miss the new positions Bones and Uhura had taken up at two of the tables: They were in the corners directly opposite the doorway. From there, they couldn't be surprised from behind and yet they had the door covered from two directions. And, they could help Jim if something went pear-shaped. "What's the situation out there?"

The cadets looked nervously at each other.

"Corin is holed up in the rec room on K Deck with a few civilians and three cadets," the female cadet said finally. "She's already taken out maybe ten cadets."

The younger male added, "Johnson and SEl'kna were trying to negotiate with two other cadets on B Deck by the lift to the docking bay."

"How many were with them?" Jim asked quickly.

"Um...six."

If only he could get the damn communicator working! Then he could contact Johnson and SEl'kna and tell them to start rounding up cadets and getting them to the commissary. It would be better than taking a black mark from the Starfleet commanders he was certain were watching the sim footage. These three could be of use in the commissary, and Nelk'knah could help, considering that she was an Elenari Mage.

"Nelk'knah, I need your help," Jim said finally. The Elenari rose and came over to the table, sat down next to the female cadet. "Are your people still vilified if you participate in war games?"

"If it is a game our consciences are cleared of any wrongdoing."

Consciences? He thought he knew the Federation species better than this.

Luckily, Nelk'knah had seen his hesitation. "Mine is a culture in which reincarnation is not a myth. Our minds regenerate many times, in many different bodies. If we commit a conscience-crime and are condemned for it, even years after the host body which committed it is dead, we can still be deemed responsible for what happened."

"That's…." Jim coughed awkwardly, not knowing how he should respond to a statement like that. "Um," he tried again, "that's ….. interesting." He sighed. "Look, we need to do more than just sit tight in here this weekend. Pike said that we had to work together to figure out what had caused the explosion. Nobody is doing that. Think you could help us round them all up?"

Nelk'knah pursed her lips, or at any rate, pursed what passed for lips on an Elenari. "The girl-child is adept at mind coercion." Her youngling scampered over and burrowed under her mother's arm. "Shirrrrah would be able to accomplish what you need."

"Great!" Jim said. "Okay, here's the plan. Bones and Uhura, you two stay here with the others. I'm going to take Shirrrrah and Nelk'knah and see about getting things under control out there."

"I'm going with you," Uhura said suddenly.

"Don't be ridiculo—" Jim started, but Uhura cut him off.

"There are a few cadets here who don't speak a word of Standard, and what about all the civilians?" Uhura pointed out. "What if you lose your universal translator, or if it can't translate an alien language for you? Where would you be then? Face it, Kirk, you need me out there."

"And I need you in here," Jim said through gritted teeth. "I'm not leaving Bones in here alone. We don't know who we can trust yet. "

The Andorian who had spoken earlier rose angrily from his chair. "Mind your tongue, Pink-Skin!" he spat.

"He was talking about us!" the other female cadet said quickly. "Weren't you?"

Jim flicked his eyes down at her briefly before meeting the Andorian's glare again. "Yeah. I was talking about the cadets. Not you."

The Andorian glared and gave a sound of disbelief, but sat down.

"Uhura, please, just stay here with Bones, yeah?" Jim said quietly. "I'll be back before you know it."

"What do you want us to do?" the female cadet asked. "Connor Jenkins is pretty good with engineering and I'm fair at languages. Mitchel Stanley's in the security track."

"What's your name?" Jim asked. At least now he knew who the other two were.

"Jenna Mills."

"All right," Jim said, "Jenna, you come with us, but you don't get a phaser. Okay?" Mills nodded.

To Uhura he said quietly: "Try to get communications back online. Pike hinted as much in the briefing."

Aloud, he said, "Let's go do this, Nelk'knah."