Author's Note:

Hello everyone and here is another chapter for you all. In this one there is an appearance of a certain life form from TOS so see if you can spot it (though it probably wont be that hard). Thank you for your continued support of this story and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I do not own any aspect of Star Trek.

Cute Find

"Keptain, look vat I found on ze planet!"

Jim could hear the eagerness and excitement in Pavel's voice as the boy entered the bridge and turned round only to have something furry thrust into his face. He took a step back and saw the teen beaming at him, looking exceptionally proud of himself and holding what could only described as some sort of puppy.

He saw Spock enter behind Pavel looking haggard (well, as haggard as a Vulcan can look) and Jim inwardly smirked guessing that his First Officer had a bit of difficulty with a hyperactive Russian. His attention was pulled away from Spock when the teen in front of him insistently shoved the creature into his face again, "Vat do you sink of eet Keptain?"

Jim looked at the creature again as he answered, "It's very nice Mr Chekov."

"He's really cute eesn't he?"

Jim had to agree with the boy on that one the creature was indeed cute. It was small and could have sat comfortably in the palm of Jim's hand. It had a dog like face with large, friendly, brown eyes and had a very furry coat. Its most striking feature was what looked like a horn growing from its forehead like a unicorn. To add to the cuteness Pavel had now pulled the animal back to his chest and was now cuddling it as it made little yipping noises and Jim smiled, "It is cute but why have you brought it back to the ship and onto the bridge?"

"Mr Spock thought zat he could study him een von of ze bio-labs so I vanted to show you him before he vent since you couldn't come down to ze planet."

By this point Nyota had come over and was cooing over the creature which seemed to be loving the attention it was getting. Jim still felt that he had to be absolutely sure about letting it on board so he addressed both Spock and Pavel, "Is that a good idea? I mean are we certain this thing is harmless?"

Pavel nodded eagerly, "Da Keptain, he ees completely harmless."

"But isn't there some regulation against this?"

"But Keptain!" Pavel gave Jim a sorrowful look, "Ve saw seweral of zese creatures on ze planet and zis von ees only a baby. He'd been abandoned by his mother and vas all alone. Mr Spock didn't sink he'd surwiwe so ve thought ve could bring him back here to be studied."

Jim looked at his First Officer, "Is that true Spock?"

Spock answered, his voice giving away nothing, "Indeed Captain. Mr Chekov found this creature alone and seeing as we had observed close bonds between mothers and offspring in this species it was logical to assume that for some reason this one had been abandoned. After a short period of discussion we decided to bring it back as this presented a rare opportunity to study the physical growth of these creatures."

Jim was certain that Spock's decision to bring it back was less to do with science and more to do with certain teenager giving him puppy eyes but decided not to voice his suspicions. He turned back to Pavel who was still cuddling the puppy, "Mr Chekov, you should probably take it down to the bio-labs. I'm sure the science officers can take good of it and maybe Mr Spock will want your assistance in studying it in the days ahead."

Pavel beamed, "Da Keptain."

He turned to leave but stopped when Jim spoke again, "And Ensign."

"Da Keptain?"

"Good work today." Jim smiled to show he meant it and Pavel's grin grew wider.

"Sank you sir."

Jim watched him bounce off the bridge before checking that everyone else had focused their attention back on their stations and spoke quietly to Spock, "I get the feeling that your decision to bring the creature back wasn't entirely science based."

"I was indeed reluctant to bring it back with us but Mr Chekov made some very good arguments to do so."

"So it was an entirely logical decision then."

"Of course Captain."

Jim just gave him a knowing smile, "Whatever you say Spock, whatever you say."

PS-So I hoped you liked that and let me know who spotted the TOS guest.