Author's Note:

Hello everyone and welcome to another chapter. Firstly in regards to the question I asked last chapter I got a few answers;suggested that tribbles spring board off walls and other objects, guest thought they rolled or teleported, Vulcanlover12 said that in TOS they seemed to wriggle or shimmy and Minecraft Guardiansaiyan said they moved under the power of reviews. Personally I'm going for they have minor telekinetic abilities which they use to pull themselves along but let me know if you have any other ideas on the propulsion methods of tribbles.

A couple of people have asked where the infamous goose came from so if you don't know, he first appeared in 'Unofficial rules of The Enterprise' and the full story can be found in Chapter 6 (Rule 13) of that story. Thank you for all your reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

I own nothing.

Legal Issues

It was far too quiet and Pavel Chekov was getting very unnerved.

He had woken up and prepared for the day as normal but when he stepped outside his quarters for his run he had found the ship empty. All automatic systems such as life-support and artificial gravity were still functioning but the Enterprise had stopped and was simply drifting through empty space. There were no other crewmembers anywhere in sight and all the stations, including the bridge, were deserted, the only sound was the almost imperceptible hum of the automatic systems. Pavel had tried using the comms but he had received no answer and he was hard pressed to keep himself calm. He used Spock's station and scanned for anything nearby that might have caused the mass disappearance but it showed nothing unusual.

His investigations were cut short when someone suddenly appeared in the middle of the bridge.

Pavel jumped and then stared at the new arrival. It appeared to be a female humanoid though with some noticeable differences; she had black hair which was tied up in a business like bun, instead of classic terran ears she had what looked like reptilian ear-flaps though with skin instead of scales, there were two more flaps running down each side of her neck and there were more forming a sort of natural cuff on her wrists, she wore a classic business suit with a sort skirt and high heels and was holding a clipboard and pen in her hands which only had three fingers and a thumb. She gave him a smile and spoke to him in an 'I'm speaking to a child' voice, "Hello sweetie, my name is Judy and I'm here on behalf of Xegbar Interplanetary Customs and Travel. This ship has entered territory owned by The Xegbar Planetary Alliance and as such has to go through certain protocols. I represent the branch that deals with minors and I would like to ask you a few questions but firstly are there any questions you have dear?"

Pavel gaped a bit more then finally managed to formulate a reply, "Er…Da vhere ees eweryvon else?"

"It is standard procedure for children over 14 to be asked to answer these questions without the adults they are travelling with present but in an environment they are comfortable with. We want to make sure that all children travelling through Xegbar space are doing so by choice and have not been taken anywhere against their will. Not having the adults they are travelling with means that their answers can be given to us in confidence. As such the Captain is currently on one of our stations and filling in all the necessary paper work and we have used a dimensional buffer to remove the rest of the grown-ups from the ship."

"A vhat!?"

"A dimensional buffer, basically it places them in a form of stasis in a tiny pocket dimension. Its all quite standard and the grown-ups will be quite alright so there is no need to worry sweetie."

Pavel suddenly realised that they had sat down facing each other at some point with Judy in Hikaru's chair and Pavel in his own. Judy readied her clipboard and pen, "Now then, firstly what is your full name sweetie?"

Unable to see what else he could do Pavel answered, "Pavel Andreievich Chekov."

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Do you have any genetic family?"

"Nyet." Pavel was certain Lientov was dead even though he didn't count him as family to begin with.

"Who is your current legal guardian?"

"Keptain James T. Kirk."

"Do you have any evidence of the legality of the guardianship?"

"I hawe my copy of ze legal papers I signed."

"Very good, we can make a copy for our own records. Are you aboard this vessel of…"

It carried on this way for what felt like hours to Pavel as she asked hundreds of questions; are you happy here, have you been abused during your time aboard, is there any crewmember who is treating you badly or unacceptably, have you at any time felt that your safety had been seriously jeopardised by the actions of any of the crew and a whole host of other similar questions many of which were pretty pointless.

When they were done Judy gave him a huge patronising smile, "Well that wasn't to bad was it? It seems that everything is fine and I'm sure that all the grown-ups will be back before you know it." She suddenly stopped talking and looked like she was listening to something before she simply nodded, "Yes that's fine, everything checks out here and I'll be back shortly." She smiled again (Pavel decided that he really hated that smile) and spoke once more, "Well sweetie it looks like your daddy's paperwork is all sorted so he and the rest will be back soon and I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time here in the Xegbar Planetary Alliance, have a nice day."

With that she vanished and soon afterwards Jim appeared as well looking haggard, he had been filling out hundreds of forms to appease the Xegbar authorities and had been through the entire system of an alien civil service. He and Pavel had just enough time to relate what happened to them and then the rest of the crew re-appeared and were very confused at how they'd somehow missed half a day. Jim told them what had happened and, with at least fifty more bits of legal paper than they had that morning, they continued on their journey.

PS-There we are and I hope you liked that and thank everyone who has given suggestions in their reviews, I'll see if I can do any of them.