Chapter 69 - New Developments


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By the time Nyota arrived in sickbay Allen was back in uniform and finishing a meal under Christine's watchful eye. "I brought all the diagnostic data on a PADD. Is there some reason you can't access it from here?"

"Seems I torqued off the doctor." He rolled his eyes a little. "I'm not allowed to touch another computer in here on pain of vivisection."

She smiled suspiciously. "What did you do?"

"Just went on a little walkabout with Grey." He shrugged, but didn't quite succeed at looking innocent.

Christine cleared her throat.

"And I may have used his voice print to check myself out first."

Nyota widened her eyes. "You didn't."

"Well, not, you know, officially." He winked. "Spock went to get Grey to spring me, but they must both be wrangling with Stone now, because it's taking forever for them to get back."

"Karma's a bitch." Kirk said, appearing beside Christine. "Ooo, pizza."

Christine slapped his hand. "Allen needs to eat. You don't."

"You're as bad as Bones." Jim pouted. "Anyway, let's see what we can get done while we're waiting."

"You shouldn't have too much longer to wait. Or at least they can't be talking to Stone anymore because we just got new orders from him." Nyota handed the PADD to Kirk, who tapped in his password for the message.

"Huh. They're sending an SI to pick Maldi up personally. He's going to be here at 22:00." Kirk looked at Allen. "This Bubnova guy is supposed to take you back too."

Nyota stifled a laugh when she translated the particularly colorful phrase that news elicited from Allen.

His cheeks flushed. "You understood that?"

She grinned. "I can cuss in 114 languages."

"Maybe you can teach me a few extra. What I know just does not cover this." His mouth formed a thin line. "Any chance you can talk your doctor into letting me out of here now, Captain?"

"Not likely." Jim pulled a face. "I haven't seen him this worked up since the time I forgot to mention being exposed to Regellian bloodworm."

"That bad, eh?"

Kirk nodded. "And I just tried calling up to Selina. She's got her privacy code set."

Sorenson frowned. Talk about karma. If they weren't talking to LT, Grey and Spock were probably discussing him. That could also take awhile, and using an override to push for leave to go to the station might not be advisable, given that letting Grey know that he planned to go to the station at all was probably not advisable. He could try just walking out, but didn't like his odds on avoiding sedation. "If I'm going to be any help to you, I need to either get down to that base before Bubba gets here."

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Selina realized as soon as she entered the outer office that she and Spock had taken too long in coming to release Faf. He had obviously gotten tired of waiting, and not content to stage his usual protest, had apparently organized a glee club. Nyota and Christine had largely been reduced to laughter while Jim and Faf seemed to be trying, with unnecessary enthusiasm, to out-do each other at deliberately singing off-key. As if that were not bad enough, they were singing Roxanne.

Seeing Len at his desk with his head in his hands, she was torn between sympathy and amusement. Sympathy won when he looked up sorrowfully. "Please, darlin', make it stop."

Spock seemed to be trying not to wince at the cacophony. She gave him a look. "Kindly inform them that music time is over."

He inclined his head and proceeded into sickbay. Faf stopped upon seeing him, but Jim, perhaps curious to see how much it would take to provoke a nerve pinch, continued to the end of the chorus.

"I am so sorry Len. I did not intend to cause such trouble, but after his experience on Maldi's ship, probing his mind in a sickbay would have been unduly stressful. Surely he has not been singing the whole time?"

"No. His caterwauling stopped for a bit while he talked to Uhura and inhaled a pizza." Len frowned. "But then he got Jim going on the idea."

"I am very sorry. If it is any consolation, he has used the same technique to drive at least two telepaths out of his thoughts."

Len hitched a half-grin. "I take it you were one of them?"

"Yes." She nodded, compressing her lips against a smile. "Worse yet, I was stubborn and foolish enough to subject myself to it more than once."

"He said that he let you examine him. I hope he didn't put you through that first."

"No. Despite some initial resistance, he was cooperative." A corner of her mouth twitched slightly. "There are some issues remaining that he will require help to resolve, but if you judge him physically recovered, there is no reason to subject yourself to any further recitals."

"Well thank heavens for that!" Len smiled up at her, but stopped when she glanced away. "Are you alright?"

"I am well. It has been many years since Faf has permitted me to go so deeply into his mind and I have not yet been able to assimilate all that I have seen." If she couldn't make sense of it to herself yet, how could she explain to anyone else? She shook her head, setting it aside. "We should tell him that he is free to go before anyone decides to resume that sing-along."

McCoy took a moment watching her walk into sickbay before rising to follow. What do you do when you find out your best friend is in love with you? He sighed to himself. At the very least, you probably don't continue flirting with someone else right in front of him, especially if he's still dealing with whatever issues she'd chosen not to mention. Well, he'd known the idea of wooing her was a long-term project (and an uphill battle) at best, especially after reading how the Armstrong's previous CMO had died. And at least Jim was equally out of luck.

...Besides, Spock for a brother-in-law? He might have had to start being nice to the pointy-eared bastard.

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"Finally! Am I free yet?" Sorenson was already out of the bed, but standing just close enough to look a bit like a runner daring the pitcher to try to pick him off for being too far from base.

"Yeah. Get out of here." McCoy ordered gruffly. "Find some place where I won't have to listen to you."

"With pleasure." He was halfway across the room before he finished saying the words.

"I am curious, doctor. Would continued vocalizing have induced you to permit him to leave?" Spock's expression indicated a bit more than scientific curiosity.

Jim grinned at his XO. "You know, actually I sing pretty well, but if turns out that that works, I think I've gotten the hang of not carrying a tune."

"In your case, I wouldn't be above using a muzzle." McCoy looked hard at Jim before shifting his glare to Spock. "On either of you."

Spock's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline at the threat.

Jim and Christine laughed while Nyota and Selina exchanged a glance and tried not to smile. Sorenson just grinned. "You know, strangely enough, no one has ever tried that on me."

"Only because earplugs are easier to procure," Selina replied. "Now, you will apologize to Len for subjecting him to that."

"I will?" His eyebrows rose.

Selina grabbed his arm. "Yes, you will."

Nyota narrowly stopped her jaw from dropping. They almost appeared to be having a staring contest, except that Allen's expression shifted from a challenging grin to a very human version of the look Spock had worn when she had forced him to put her on the Enterprise. There was a conversation going on there! She glanced at Spock, who seemed to be carefully not looking at them, and then did a little victory dance in her head.

"Right. I guess I will." Allen looked up. "My apologies doctor, but if you need to confine me again, I'd really prefer the brig."

"Believe me, I'll put you there." McCoy replied dryly. "And I'll make sure the guards have earplugs."

"See? That wasn't so hard." Jim said, clapping both on the shoulder. He turned to Allen. "So, ready to go?"

Selina stared, looking from one to the other. "Ready to go where?"

"The station - we need to investigate a signal and figure out why the traps he set on the casino systems went down as soon as you guys were captured."

Her eyebrows rose and she shot Spock an accusing look before turning her attention to Allen. "That is what you were covering?"

He looked away a bit sheepishly.

"Hey, don't worry," Jim said. "We're bringing a full security detail."

"Perhaps, under the circumstances," Spock gave Allen a significant look, "it would be preferably for me to go in your place."

"I'm alright, Spock, at least for this." He looked down at Selina. "I'm cleared for duty and I have a job to do. You saw that Maldi expects someone to free him. I can't take the chance that someone else might miss what I wouldn't."

The unspoken 'again' was so clear she could feel it. She shook her head. Only Faf could do this to her - make her want to strike him and comfort him in equal measures. She closed her eyes a moment to recenter and felt his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm going to be stuck in a shuttle with Maldi and Bubnova in a few hours, so if you decide to kill me for this, you'll be doing me a favor. Just wait until we get back, okay?"

"Orders from Commodore Stone," Nyota replied to her surprised look. "They came in a little over an hour ago."

Selina felt her temper shift again before she had had a chance to master it. The kre'nath! Those orders must have been sent almost as soon she finished speaking with him. That lunikkh ta'vik was not only not going to allow her time to help Faf, he was going to subject him to a long flight with company that would try even Faf's patience. ...Or Erik's. She looked up at him, more worried than before.

"If I don't get a chance to say goodbye, I'll look you up next time I'm free." He gave her what was probably meant to be a reassuring smile and walked out before she could respond.

Jim and Spock left with him. Nyota paused a moment before following. "Don't worry. We'll keep an eye on him."

An eye would not be enough. Selina hurried after them and took his arm as they walked. Stay and let me use the time to help you.

Grey, don't ask me to-

She brushed his thoughts with a suggestion of what that help could include.

He almost tripped. Judging by his first thought, he was tempted; but he was trying so hard to cover a host of others (including a few Erik seemed to want her to see) that she nearly laughed. After Spock herded Jim and Nyota ahead of them, Faf looked down at her. "That was unfair."

It was not, she noted, a request to go away. You know the offer is sincere. She very deliberately recalled pressing against him in a warm shower and heard/felt his breath catch.

And that was extremely unfair. I'm going to kick myself all the way back for turning that down, but I still need to do this. He continued walking and carefully shifted his thoughts to a very detailed circuit diagram.

She sighed as they entered the transporter room. That he could resist her by focusing on a pet project was strangely endearing. That he continued to risk himself for this obsession was not. Do not go Fafhrd. LT told you to leave this to others.

LT may yet chain me to my desk, but I can't walk away from this. Not yet.

She shook her head. What about Erik?

We have a pretty high degree of consensus on this. The thought came in a faint stereo that she did not find at all reassuring.

He is barely in line. How can you even consider-

"You know, I think I liked it better when he wouldn't let her do that." Jim's voice interrupted with a loud whisper.

There was a short laugh (with a slight echo) in Faf's mind. We're being rude. I should probably ask you to leave now.

It was a test and even if she felt the regret behind it, she wavered right on the edge of failing and being the dangerous consequence if he insisted. With an effort of will, she withdrew. "Very well, but I am going with you."

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Jim stood next to Spock and Selina watching Sorenson and Uhura sitting cross-legged on the floor busily dissecting the box they had extracted from beneath the control board in the casino monitor room. They looked like two over-grown kids working on a new puzzle and were conversing in a mix of Standard with occasional patches of some language that he assumed was related to Sorenson's slight accent. Kirk was well-versed in at least the basics of every field related to ship operations, but between two languages and increasingly dense technical discussion, he'd lost the thread of the conversation.

Selina shook her head looking amused.

"Are you following what's going on?" Jim asked.

"Only to the extent of understanding that they are quite impressed by this little gadget."

Spock tilted his head. "It is an ingenious device. A stand-alone which, when activated, creates a jamming effect similar to a highly localized ion storm."

She crossed her arms and looked up at him. "I am surprised that you are not on the floor playing with it too."

"They are both more than capable of analyzing it without my assistance." One corner of his mouth curved slightly. "Unless it is required, I am content to observe the lieutenant bond with another friend over a ritual considerably more interesting than shopping."

Jim chuckled. "If he weren't leaving in few hours, I'd try to put together that ritual but with Scotty and a case of booze."

"Faf inebriated with an entire engineering lab to play in." Selina looked skyward. "That is all we need."

"I heard that, you know." Allen replied without looking up.

When she went over laid a hand on his shoulder, he did look up and laugh. Allen shook his head, his cheeks flushing as she stepped back with a smug look.

Damn but that was getting annoying. "Any chance you'll let me in on the joke?" Jim whispered. "Remember, I do have an engineering lab and scotch at my disposal."

She arched an eyebrow and then lightly touched his arm. I told him that I was surprised that he had heard because he appears to be so engrossed in this task that I doubted he would look up even if I danced around the room naked.

Jim reminded himself to breathe. You're kidding.

A hint of mischievous laughter echoed in his mind. You did ask.

She retreated from his mind, but he caught a vague impression that Allen had some point of reference for imagining that dance. He slammed the brakes on that train of thought when he caught her watching him out of the corner of her eye. She nodded at the pair in front of them and he nearly laughed himself when he noticed that Sorenson was right back to being completely absorbed by whatever Uhura was pointing to in the device. He shook his head. Science officers were seriously weird.

He went over and knelt down with them to see what could possibly be that interesting. "What have you figured out so far?"

"This thing was put together recently from older components." Sorenson indicated some of the guts of the box. "There's oxidation on these parts, but all of the connections are nearly pristine. Maldi knew I'd hacked his casino, so they probably anticipated that we'd use their surveillance against them in a raid. Probably the only that reason security didn't run into any nastier surprises is that Maldi was more interested in catching me." His shoulders slumped a little. "At least I was good for something. I certainly wouldn't have known how to counter this even if I'd made it here that night."

Uhura put a hand on his knee. "You couldn't have known that at the time. And now we've got a countermeasure if we see this again."

"Already?" Kirk asked.

"Yes. Look," Uhura pointed to a blue-black prism. "That's from an older Klingon alarm beacon. We know how to disarm those with a feedback signal."

"Klingon." Kirk frowned. "I hope they're not involved."

Uhura nodded. "I do too, but this is cobbled together from a collection of sources. It's more like what you'd expect from smugglers who have bits and pieces from a lot of different places."

"And yet it is integrated in a very sophisticated manner." Spock observed.

Kirk stood. "I think it's time we investigated those 'empty' guest quarters."

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AN: Minor cliffie. I'll try to wrap this up soon, but I have two new foster greyhounds (one ironically is tall, skinny and red-furred) that are taking a lot of time and attention right now.

Roxanne has to be the optimal song to sing off-key since there aren't many people outside of Sting who can sing it on-key.

lunikkh ta'vik - poisoner of wells, an old Vulcan invective
kre'nath - Vulcan for bastard