Unfinished Business

Chapter 24 : Working Together

May, 2273

Towards the middle of the morning, Uhura jumped from her seat with a small shriek. Spock was instantly by her side. "What has happened?"

She pointed to a small point of crackling energy in the middle of her console. "I got a big shock. Something has shorted out."

Spock immediately moved her chair out of the way and folded himself down to the floor, sliding up under her console. He quickly found the point where he could disconnect her console from the power nodes, and heard the crackle die away.

"You've got it turned off. Thanks."

"It will be necessary to disassemble a major portion of your console in order to isolate the problem."

Kirk was leaning over the railing now. "Will the two of you need any help?"

"I do not believe so, Captain. Together we have repaired the communications console many times."

"But this one's not like the other one. Everything's been updated."

Spock's dry voice replied. "It is sufficiently alike that I do not believe that we shall have any problem. Lieutenant Commander Uhura is extremely well qualified in her field."

"Well, okay, but yell out if there's anything you need." Kirk turned and went back to the command chair, leaving the two officers to do their job.

Uhura knelt down beside Spock. "What tools do we need to get?"

"I believe the standard tool kit will be sufficient, at least to disassemble the console and isolate the problem. A small portable power unit will also be necessary."

"Okay, I'll head for the lab and pick all that up. I'll be back shortly." And she stood and headed for the turbolift, leaving him laying on the floor, realizing that this was the longest conversation they had had with each other yet. And neither of them had been the least bit uneasy, either.

While he waited for her to return with the tools, he used the small tricorder from the science station to attempt to assess the damage. It was difficult to do without the power on, but he did not wish to risk more damage by applying power. He did determine where the most damaged circuits appeared to be.

When she knelt down beside him again, and opened the tool kit, he began asking for specific tools, which she passed to him quickly. And then she was on the floor as well, on her back, supporting the panel he was attempting to remove from under the console. When he had released all the connections, she took the panel and laid it to one side, as though they had rehearsed this maneuver many times. Perhaps, in a way, they had.

He remembered all the many times that he had assisted her in repair work, and the times she had assisted him as well. His memory fixed on the time the ship had been under attack while they were working under her console, and a lurch while he was holding onto a bracket had cut his fingers deeply. He remembered well the care and attention she had given him as he healed, and the way in which she had verified that he was indeed fully functional again. His body grew warm at that memory, and he felt stirrings that he had not felt for the last three years. Forcefully, he subdued his body, and turned his attention back to the chore at hand.

She was watching him, waiting for him to continue. There were two more panels to remove before they could assess the section of electronics where the problem was. For some reason, she remembered the time that she had had to repair a communications beacon, and he had accompanied her. They had been very closely confined there, but he had still found a way to excite her, and himself. She should absolutely not be thinking about that now. She pushed those thoughts way down, and sat on them, and turned her attention back to right now, just in time to hand him another tool.

He got the second panel loose, and she laid it with the first. He began to undo the connectors of the third panel when suddenly she reached over and pulled his hand back. The touch of her fingers against his was a great shock and he almost gasped aloud. His head snapped to the side, and he looked directly into her face. "Look, there's still energy there! If you had touched that…."

She was absolutely correct, and he had not noticed it at all. There should not be any energy there. He had disconnected the power node. Where was the energy coming from? He reached for the tricorder again and passed it over the circuits. "There. There is a cross-over where there should not be."

She leaned closer, so that she could see the read-out. "It needs to be disconnected there." She pointed to one particular node on the display.

"You are correct. However, I do not believe that I can get my hand in there. The tolerance is very small."

"Let me see whether I can reach it." Once again, she was on her back, sliding under the console. She took the tool from him and reached carefully up beside the stack of boards, concentrating on locating the power connection that should already have been disconnected.

"A centimeter more to your right, so that you do not touch the wall." He watched carefully, not wanting her to receive a shock. With a small shove, she connected with the connection and severed it, and the energy flow was shut off. She gave a small sigh of relief and carefully withdrew the tool, handing it back to him and sliding back out from underneath the console. He found himself regretting how quickly she had been able to perform her task. It had been quite pleasant working in such close quarters with her.

The third panel came off quickly now, and they could begin to assess the damage. He suspected that that cross-connection was responsible, but he did not yet have an idea what had caused it. They managed to remove all the damaged boards, and while she went to check the communications lab for spares, he investigated the inside of the console, trying to find the cause of the cross-connection. By the time she returned, he believed he had found it. She knelt down, and placed the stack of replacement components within easy reach, sliding back under the console to lay beside him. He pointed with the tool in his hand to a patch of melted plastic. "There has been some sort of heat or energy here, which has melted the insulating material. Most probably it was this initial burst of energy which precipitated the entire problem. However, I have not been able to ascertain what caused that initial problem."

She looked hard at where he was pointing. "What's on the other side of that? Isn't that up against the turbolift shaft?"

She was absolutely correct. He lifted his wrist toward his face and spoke into his communicator. In a very brief time, there was an engineer in the turbolift shaft examining the area in question. He told them to cover their faces, and there was a short blast, and then there was a small hole in the wall between the shaft and the back of her station. The engineer's grinning face was looking through at them. "There's a wiring fault here. We probably never would have found this if you hadn't had a problem. I'll have it fixed in just a moment. Going to repair the wall now." And he inserted a strange apparatus into the hole and injected something, which caused the hole to close from the outside to the center.

"Fascinating."

She actually giggled. He thrilled to hear it. When the engineer commed them a few moments later and said his work was finished, they began to insert the new components. It only took a few minutes. She slid back out, and he reconnected the power node. He waited while she checked over her console. "Looks good. I think we fixed it."

He began to replace the cover panels, working quickly. She collected all the tools, and replaced them in the tool box. When he had the last panel set in place, he handed her the last tool, and she rose with the tool box and portable power supply, and was in the turbolift before he could exit from beneath the console. He would have preferred that she not retreat so quickly. However, this had been a most encouraging encounter. He rose, brushed himself off, and returned to his own console.

Kirk swiveled his chair around. "All fixed?"

"It appears to be fully functional again. You may question Lieutenant Commander Uhura more thoroughly if you desire."

"No, no, if you say it's fixed, then I'm sure it's fixed." The captain was quiet for a moment and then continued in a much softer tone of voice. "It's good to see the two of you working together again. Reminds me of old times."

He could only agree.