Chapter 4, Settling In

Christine Chapel had settled in to her new post as the Enterprise's head nurse with little trouble. She was enjoying her work on the ship, even more than she had dared hope. Space exploration was fantastic and she was learning more about life on little-known planets, and even a few new ones.

She'd made friends, too. She met Lieutenant Uhura at the dinner Mr. Spock hosted for new crewmembers and the two hit it off right away. Nyota headed the ship's communications department and was a bridge officer. Like McCoy, she mentored her staff and actively encouraged them to advance and push themselves "outside their comfort zone," as she liked to say. She was one of the most outgoing people Christine had ever met, too; nothing seemed to rattle her. Not even a stare from the First Officer.

Christine hadn't been in the rec room the day Nyota decided to put words to a new song Mr. Spock was playing on his Vulcan lyre, but she'd heard about it from several others who were there. This included Janice Rand, the yeoman she'd met her first day on the ship. She'd become friendly with Jan, too.

As Jan told it, Mr. Spock was sitting in a corner of the general rec room, playing a bunch of different chords on his lyre. Uhura was listening with interest and shocked everyone present by asking him to sing. "Everyone sort of held their breath," Jan had told her. "And he just looked at her like she'd grown horns or something and said in that voice of his, 'No, Lieutenant, lyrics are created after the music.'

"So Nyota sidles up to him, leans down with that cleavage of hers in plain sight, and starts whispering in his ear…"

"No way!" Christine had gasped. While Mr. Spock was admittedly far more approachable than most Vulcans, few people would dare invade his personal space like that. Heck, few people would invade any First Officer's space like that. It just wasn't done.

"Yes, way!" Jan answered gleefully. "And he…kind of smiled up at her! I tell you Chris, that girl could flirt with a Klingon."

They both laughed.

"What then?"

"So he starts playing another tune, nothing any of us recognized, and Nyota starts singing about the Enterprise, and its mysterious and devilishly handsome First Officer…"

"Oh…my…god…"

"And she's putting her hands on his back and shoulders, touching him, just singing away, and he had this wonderfully goofy expression on his face. I tell you, Chris, it was priceless. I wish I had the nerve to ask Chekhov if Security has a tape of the whole thing!"

They laughed again. "If there was one, Mr. Spock has probably destroyed it by now," Christine said. "Do you think there's something between the two of them?" she wondered aloud.

"I don't think so," Jan answered. "But you know, Kirk keeps me pretty busy when I'm on the bridge. I've never seen anything to make me think something is going on between him and Nyota. He is very attentive to the Captain, but that's his job. I've never really seen him speak to women on staff outside of the bridge or on landing parties, except for science staff of course, and, well, you."

"Only because I'm less threatening to him than Len," Christine grinned.

They laughed. "I also have something he wants."

"Really? And what would that be, Lieutenant?" Jan said in as deep a voice as she could muster.

"I have equipment I think he wants."

"Explain," Jan said, trying to deepen her voice.

"I can recognize abnormalities on bio samples he and the crew bring in that they would never notice."

"How's that?"

"I have a 3D microscope with 4DX capabilities that can interpret the conditions under which the sample you're looking at had developed. I had to practically pull Spock away from it when I showed it to him. I bought it for my last year in grad school. It has an interface that just blows away the stuff they have in the labs up there, the magnification is amazing. Honestly, for all the money they pour into those labs, they're using old software to interpret the slides…oh, never mind." Jan's eyes had begun to glaze over.

"Well! I'd better be headed back up," Jan said brightly. "See you later, Chris!"

The friendships and banter were fun and served as a distraction from her near-obsession with finding Roger. If, of course, he could be found at all. He could be lost forever, dead or alive.

She was no longer 100% convinced he was still living. She'd learned a lot about life indicators during her few months on the ship. The absolute lack of them on Exo III from more sources than she'd been aware of had been a jolt.

But she still held out hope. If for nothing else, closure. She couldn't mourn Roger, not when anyone could say with any certainty if he was alive. But hoping was exhausting, particularly when there simply was no new information coming forth.

Spock appeared at Sick Bay one morning. McCoy and Chapel were recalibrating biobed readouts following an episode of turbulance that triggered a software shutdown.

"Whaddya want, Spock?" McCoy asked.

"My tricorder would be nice. And good morning."

"Oh, right, hang on a moment." McCoy disappeared into his office.

Christine tossed a smile at him. "Morning, Mr. Spock."

"Lieutenant." He felt his heart jump an extra beat.

"You loaned your tricorder to Dr. McCoy?" she asked.

Obviously, he thought. Rather than voicing it, he nodded. "And I need it back to reconfigure to obtain scans on Ceti Alpha Six." He cleared his throat.

"Ceti Alpha—you mean we will be going in that part of the sector?"

Yes, obviously, Spock thought, and again, kept his thoughts to himself. He nodded again. "We are going into deeper space-"

Christine sat down, feeling suddenly lightheaded.

"Nurse? Are you all right?"

McCoy came out of his office, tricorder in hand. "Here, Spock, I even added – Chris, what's wrong?" He rushed to Christine's side, turning Spock's scanner on her. "What happened?"

Christine shook her head. "Just got some unexpected news, Leonard—"

"That we're going near Exo?"

"Yes. I mean, this is great. It's why I'm here."

McCoy turned to Spock. "Had to be the one to tell her?"

"Len, I'm fine. It's exactly the news I've been waiting for."

"Nurse, I apologize, I did not foresee your reaction—"

"Mr. Spock, both of you, I'm fine! Please, it was just unexpected news. But good news." She rose out of her chair and turned to Spock. "Thank you for letting me know, sir. I know I have basic clearance and that might not be enough but—"

"We will be doing a fly-by to Exo III and send a probe to gather more data to help us determine if a landing party is advisable," Spock told her. "I will keep you informed."

"Thank you Mr. Spock."

He nodded, and she left the room.

McCoy eyed him. "I didn't know we were sending a probe."

Spock turned to face him. "I just decided this. It is logical from many points of view."

McCoy tilted his head. "Indeed." He watched as Spock nodded back and exited Sick Bay.

Hobgoblin's got it bad.