"Lieutenant," Spock said, "It was my belief that you

were relieved from duty."

Larssen managed to control her start of surprise

before she brained herself on the underside of the

lab bench. Head and shoulders in the wall cavity,

she hadn't heard him approach - not, she thought,

that you ever hear him approach. "Yes sir." she

said. "Can you see a diachronic transponder circuit

somewhere to your left there?"

"Yes." Spock said. "Here."

Larssen held out her hand and he put the circuit in

it. "I think that's it." she said, setting the

circuit in.

"The source of the power fade?" Spock said.

"Yes, sir. I know we've been working around it but

it seemed a shame to miss the chance to get a good

look inside the wall, given that it's been kicked in

anyway." she said. "If you were to turn the power

on now I could see how the circuit set-up works."

She heard him power up the board, heard the

spectrometer cycle to full, and then heard the power

output began to fall away again. "Fish." she

muttered in Romulan.

"It appears your solution is unsuccessful,

Lieutenant." Spock said.

"Yes, sir." She hauled herself out and looked

thoughtfully at the spectrometer. "Apart from

anything else, sir, that circuit was cross-shorting

through the input-output buffer. That'd cause the

problem. There can't be *two* causes."

"Why not?" Spock asked.

"Well, no good reason, really." Larssen said, a faint

line between her eyebrows as she thought. "I could

run a diagnostic through the circuit baffle ..."

"Since you are off duty, Lieutenant, there is no

necessity for you to do so at this time." Spock said.

"Sir, I don't mind." Better fiddling with duotronic

drivers than sitting in her quarters and ignoring the

door chime, or trying to face her crew mates in

recreation. She sorted through her tools to find

the diagnostic imager. "Unless that's an order - but

I thought you were relieved of duty too, sir."

"I have been, until the ship is cleared at Starbase

33." Spock said. "However -"

"Nothing in here is mission critical." Larssen

interrupted, and then blushed at her lack of manners.

There went that damn eyebrow. "Sir, I mean that even

though I'm not cleared - I'm not endangering -" She

took a deep breath. "Please don't make me leave,

sir."

~I need somewhere to be.~

"If you are certain that Dr McCoy would not object.

Lieutenant, then set that imager on point 3. The

finer resolution will be necessary if the problem is

in the inner linkages."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." She tugged herself back

under the bench. "If it isn't the circuit baffle,

sir, what should I look at next?"

"The input/output relay."

"Yes, sir."

The baffle read A-OK, so Larssen checked it again,

then crawled out.

"The input/output relay." she said.

"Yes." Spock said.

"Alright, sir." Larssen said doubtfully.

"I have been preparing my report on the events at

Starbase 34." Spock said, and the driver slipped from

Larssen's fingers and clattered to the floor.

"Small fish." she muttered, diving for it, and making

a greater business of finding it than she needed to,

until she had her expression under control.

"I wished to clarify a point with you."

"Yes, sir." Larssen said, standing up.

"In order to gain a clearer picture of the entity's

abilities," Spock said, "I wondered if it had been

able to make any accurate assessment of your

character."

The screws were very small, and it was necessary to

concentrate very hard on the driver to get them out.

"Accurate, sir?" she asked, her voice steady. "It

showed me -"

"Visions of a possible future, a possible past, yes."

Spock said. "As it did me. Since it seemed unable to

construct possibilities that were more than grotesque

distortions when it communicated with me, I was

curious as to whether it had shown any greater

understanding of the human mind. It is fascinating,"

he went on levelly, "that a creature of such power,

able to penetrate thoughts, should have such a poor

understanding of the complexity of a flesh-bound

mind."

The relay cover came off, and Larssen began to trace

the wiring back to the hole in the wall. "Sir, I

don't know, I mean - I thought - " She took a deep

breath, trying to hold back the memories of the

images, the feelings, the touches. "I was surprised

at what it showed me." she forced herself to say. "I

didn't think - that I was - that kind of person."

She cross-linked the wires and set the loop for

testing. "But then - I didn't think I was the kind

of person to - forget the rest of the ship, sir, and

I did, I beat that *thing* to death for what she did

to me, not to protect the crew. Sir, the problem, it

isn't the relay."

"Are you sure?" Spock asked.

"I've got the cross-link set and the -" Larssen said,

and then stopped as Spock reached past her and made a

minute adjustment to the imager. It made its

characteristic bleedle and flashed red, showing a

failing in the upper regulator of the relay. "No."

she said softly. "I guess I'm not so sure. Try the

power now, sir."

He brought the unit up to power and it ran

obediently.

"Well, I'll be a Sulamid storekeeper." Larssen

breathed. "It was the relay the whole time!"

"Without the replacement of the diachronic

transponder circuit, the fault in the relay would not

show." Spock said. "At times, a simple explanation

is inadequate to the problem at hand. In a universe

as varied and diverse as ours - a universe as

complex, indeed, as we ourselves are - there can be

more than one cause for any event or action."

"Yes, sir."

"Even when one believes that one is certain of an

explanation," he said with disproportionate clarity,

"It is always necessary to carefully examine such

suppositions. Do you follow me, Lieutenant?"

She looked from the spectrometer to Spock, and

managed to meet his level gaze without flinching. Do

you know? she wanted to ask. Do you know, or are you

guessing? Can anyone, even you, guess so very well?

But she would never ask, and he would never say.

"Sir." she said, and despite her grease stains and

oil smudges and the dust she'd collected under the

bench, she drew herself up to parade rest. "I

believe I do, sir. Thank you for your assistance."

"There is no need to thank me, Lieutenant." Spock

said. "The proper functioning of the equipment - as

well as the personnel - of science section is part of

my responsibility as first office and section head."

"Yes, sir." Larssen said levelly. "I know that. All

the same, thank you, sir." She turned away to bundle

her tools into the toolkit, and Spock watched her,

the way she took the time to sort the tools from

smallest to largest, for Larssen never hurried

unnecessarily. She checked her pockets for any

parts or tools she might have absentmindedly stowed

there, and pulled out nothing but a data solid.

Nine months ago she had presented herself for her

first duty shift on the Enterprise in this very lab,

Spock thought as Larssen weighed the solid in her

hand for a moment and then tossed it into recycling.

She had changed very little externally from the

compact young woman with the mild expression Spock

had met on that day. Even under strong light, it was

almost impossible to discern her scars.

Experience had proven she was practical by nature and

calm by habit, and under difficult circumstances she

had acquitted herself well, demonstrating

categorically that she was qualified for the path of

command. It was not a path Spock had, himself,

chosen to pursue, and it was not one she could walk

much further on the Enterprise. The time would come

soon for Spock to add his own comments to the notes

her previous commanding officers had made on

Larssen's service jacket. 'Competent and reliable',

those previous officers had written without

exception, and not for the first time Spock marvelled

at the flexibility of human language that allowed

such a statement to be both accurate and inadequate

simultaneously.

"Lieutenant." he said as she turned to leave, "You

are most welcome."