Kate breathed a sigh of relief as she changed out of her Star Fleet uniform into a more comfortable pair of skinny jeans with a sparkly tank top. Wearing personal clothes felt so much more relaxing than being in uniform. She fluffed her hair and fixed her makeup before joining Nyota so they could enjoy a little bit of shore leave. She knew that Jim was frustrated with having to deal with whatever it was he was dealing with, but she was glad for the change to get off the ship and be a normal person for a while.
As Kate left her quarters and rounded a corner so she could go to the transport room, she ran into someone and apologized quickly, "I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," then looked up and saw that it was Leonard that she had run into. He seemed startled to be so close to her, and she felt heat rise to her cheeks, so she quickly rushed away from him before they could engage in awkward small talk. Somewhere deep inside of her, she knew this wasn't really the best way to handle literally running into him, but she couldn't stand to be around him. It still hurt too much and she knew that she needed to give some distance so that she could finally try to get over him.
She pushed these thoughts aside and determined that she was going to have a good time off ship with Nyota. The two of them hadn't had time together in so long, it was going to be great to just be friends rather than colleagues on a ship, even if it was just a few hours. As Kate arrived to the transport room, Nyota greeted her with a hug and said, "Ready to get off this ship?"
Kate laughed and replied, "More than you know. Let's get out of here!"
They beamed down to the station and took in their surroundings. It was a fairly busy area, and there seemed to be plenty of shops and restaurants for them to choose from. It was almost too difficult to decide what to do in such a short amount of time. Nyota looked around and asked, "Well, should we get a drink to celebrate first, then find some shopping to do?"
Kate smiled in response before saying, "That sounds great. There's a bar that looks pretty nice over there."
Nyota put her arm through Kate's and said, "Well, let's get on with it!"
As they entered the bar, Kate was almost overwhelmed with how many people were in there. Being on the Enterprise for so long now, she had gotten use to being around the same people all the time. All the new faces made her feel anonymous, and that was a wonderful feeling after being around the same group of people for so long. She and Nyota took a seat at the bar and each ordered their drink before Nyota turned to her and asked, "So, how's the awkward relationship with Leonard going?"
Kate was taking a sip of her water and was caught off guard by Nyota's sudden line of questioning. She choked on her water and began coughing to clear her throat, then took a breath to calm herself before saying, "I should know by now that there's nothing subtle about you, shouldn't I?"
Nyota shrugged and agreed, "You should. Now, how's it going?"
Kate sighed and shook her head. She had told Nyota about telling Leonard that friendship wasn't enough for her anymore already. She wasn't sure what Nyota was wanting from her, so she shook her head and replied, "I don't know what you want to hear."
Nyota kept waiting in silence, so Kate sighed before continuing, "After I told him friendship wasn't enough for me anymore, we haven't talked outside of a professional context. I don't think we're going to."
Nyota closed her eyes and shook her head as their drinks were delivered. She took a sip of hers before saying, "Kate, I know you want to get over him, but is avoiding him and being awkward really the best way to handle it?"
Kate took a sip of her drink to think for a moment then said, "I know it's not, but I don't know what else to do. We fall into the same patterns. I think we both care about each other too much and we've got too much history to not do that. I just can't handle it any more. I can't handle him being kind and flirting with me, knowing it's not going to go anywhere."
If Kate was being entirely honest with herself, she had begun wondering how much longer she was really going to be able to stand being on the Enterprise with him. Even with trying to keep her distance, there was no way to avoid him enough to really begin the process of moving on. Seeing him be his normal self with other people, then to be quiet and not engaged when talking to her was getting to be too difficult.
Nyota gave her a sad face and said, "I know, Kate. I wish he'd just come to his senses and see how good you two would be together."
Kate smiled sadly and drank some more before saying, "But, I don't think that will ever happen, Nyota, so let's talk about brighter things, like you and Spock, then do some shopping."
As Kate and Nyota finished their drinks and were paying so that they could leave, the bartender was talking with a man who entered a little after they had saying, "I don't want any. I told you before, and I'm telling you again I don't want any more Spican flame gems. Thanks to you, I have enough Spican flame gems to last me a lifetime."
The man didn't seem deterred and continued their conversation, "How sad for you, my friend. You won't find a finer stone anywhere. But I have something better. Surely you want some Antarian glow water."
The bartender rolled his eyes, clearly not interested in buying anything from this man any more, and said sarcastically, "I use that to polish the flame gems."
The man shrugged and said, "You're a difficult man to reach, but I have something from the far reaches of the galaxy," then pulled what looked like an adorable ball of fluff out of his pocket. As he held it out, it began purring and Kate felt her heart being tugged on. It was one of the sweetest things she had ever seen.
The man showed it to the bartender and began saying, "Surely you want," but the bartender interrupted him and said, "Not at your price," before walking away.
Kate and Nyota made eye contact for a moment before Nyota turned her attention back to the man in front of them and said, "It's adorable. What is it?"
The man handed it to her and said, "Why, lovely ladies, this here is a tribble."
Kate and Nyota asked at the same time, "A tribble?"
The man smiled at them before saying, "Only the sweetest creature known to man, excepting you lovelies, of course."
In spite of knowing she should feel grossed out by this random man flirting with them while trying to sell them something, Kate was just in awe of the tribble. It started purring in Nyota's hands and she said, "Oh, Kate, listen to it. It's so adorable."
The man smiled, "It likes you both."
Kate look at the tribble and asked the man, "Are you selling them?"
He nodded and said, "Yes, Miss...?"
Kate responded, "Kate, and this is my friend Nyota."
He nodded and said, "And my name is Jones. Yes, I am selling them. 10 credits a piece. I get them for about six credits, so I gotta make a profit."
They both heard the bartender mutter, "Thief," but Kate had already decided that she really wanted one. Nyota turned to her and asked, "Oh, we couldn't? Could we?"
Kate shrugged, "It's not like Jim's gonna kick us of the ship," then turned back to Jones and said, "I'll take one."
Jones smiled over at the bartender and said, "I'm actually just going to give this one to you, and another one to your friend here. Once people start seeing these, they won't be able to resist. It's perfect marketing."
Nyota handed the tribble over to Kate as Jones pulled another one out of his pocket and handed it to her. Kate looked at her tribble and petted it softly, then smiled as it began purring in her hand. Surely these tribbles couldn't be too difficult to take care of. Perhaps she should have asked that first.
So Kate asked, "Jones, are they hard to take care of? I am pretty busy during my job."
He shook his head and replied, "Not at all, my dear. Just feed them some oats and give them water about three times a day, and they'll be set to be your happy companion."
Kate and Nyota nodded and smiled. The tribbles really were adorable. It would be nice to have something to distract her from Leonard, and this seemed like the perfect solution.
About the time Kate and Nyota were leaving the bar to do some shopping, Kate's communicator went off. She heard Jim asking, "Kate? Come in, Kate?"
Kate looked at Nyota and sighed as she said, "So much for shore leave," then answered Jim's call and said, "I'm here with Uhura, Captain."
Jim's voice came through, "Good, I know you didn't get much time on K7, but you're both needed back on ship. We've got everything loaded up and we hope to be off soon."
Nyota sighed as Kate answered, "Alright Jim, we'll be right back up," then put up her communicator. She petted her tribble, which started purring again, and Kate felt happier in spite of being frustrated that shore leave was cut short.
Nyota said, "Well, I guess we'll need to get back to transport. Glad we've got these little guys, though."
Kate nodded and smiled as she looked down at her tribble, "Yeah, me too. I think it'll help me occupy myself and keep my mind off of Leonard."
They got back on ship and immediately reported to the briefing room after dropping their tribbles off in their rooms. Leonard was there, so Kate and Nyota and Kate sat as far away from him as they could in such a small space. Fortunately, Jim didn't take long to get in there and he began immediately saying, "So, you're probably all wondering why shore leave was cut short."
They all nodded, but Nyota received a message and said, "Captain, a message from Starfleet. Priority channel, Admiral Fitzpatrick speaking."
Jim nodded and said, "Put it on visual please, Lieutenant."
Admiral Fitzpatrick came on screen and asked, "Captain Kirk?"
Jim nodded once and replied, "Kirk here."
The admiral continued, "Captain, I know it is not necessary to remind you of the importance of the Sherman Planet to the Federation. The key to winning this planet is the grain quadrotriticale. The shipment of it must be protected. Effective immediately, you will render any aid and assistance which they may require. The safety of the grain and the project is your number one priority. Starfleet out." Then the transmission ended abruptly.
Jim sighed and placed his hands on the table as he shook his head and said, "Well, that's just lovely."
Spock interjected, "But not entirely unexpected, Captain."
Jim was about to speak again, but Nyota exclaimed, "Captain, sensors are picking up a Klingon battle cruiser rapidly closing on the station."
Everyone sat up straighter and turned their attention to Jim. K7 was close to Klingon space, Kate just had hoped to avoid encountering any. Jim went into business mode right away and said, "Go to red alert, and notify Mister Lurry on K7. We all need to report to the bridge."
Nyota nodded and began contacting Lurry on K7 immediately from the briefing room. The rest of them rushed to the bridge to try to assess what was going to happen. As she arrived at the bridge, she found herself standing by Leonard, so she shuffled away from him to get closer to Jim. She was already nervous about the Klingons. She didn't need to be nervous about him too.
As Jim sat in the chair, he asked, "What is the position of the Klingon ship?"
Chekov replied, "100 kilometers off K7. It's just sitting there."
Nyota burst in the bridge and said, "Sir, I've contacted Mister Lurry."
Jim said, "Put him on visual," and Nyota replied, "Aye sir," then went to her station and tapped a few buttons before Lurry appeared on screen.
Jim greeted him then said, "Mister Lurry, there's a Klingon warship hanging 100 kilometers off yoru station."
Lurry didn't seem nervous and said, "I don't think the Klingons are planning on attacking us."
Everyone in the bridge seemed to share a look before Jim asked, "Why not?"
Lurry pointed across his desk and said, "Because at this moment the captain of the Klingon ship is sitting right here in my office."
Jim crossed his arms and sat back in his seat before saying, "We'll beam right down." As the transmission ended, Jim said, "Cancel red alert. Spock, you're with me. Sulu, you have the conn."
Kate felt nervous about Jim and Spock leaving, but there was nothing left for her to do on the bridge. She decided, rather than hanging out on the bridge and being around Leonard, that she'd go to her room and get her tribble. That would make her happier than standing around waiting on Jim. As she got to her room, she was surprised to see that, instead of one tribble, there were five tribbles. She got closer to them and saw that four were smaller than the other. She shook her head as she realized that Jones had given her a pregnant tribble. He probably did the same for Nyota.
She gathered up the tribbles and took them with her to the rec room. She could keep five of them. She didn't want to keep five of them. Surely there were four other people on ship that might want a tribble. She sat in the rec room for a while and ended up gathering a crowd around her. Everyone was fascinated with the tribbles and everyone seemed happier for having them around.
Nyota joined them in the rec room, bringing her tribble along as well. Nyota sat beside Kate and said, "I see yours had babies too."
Kate looked and saw Nyota had five tribbles now as well and shook her head as she said, "Jones didn't tell us they were pregnant. Now there are ten tribbles on board."
The rec room doors opened again and she saw Jim, Spock, and Leonard come in. They talked to Scotty for a moment before seeing the large group of people around their table. The three made their way over to the table and took in the sight of the ten tribbles and the crowd gathered around the two women.
Leonard asked first, "How long have you two had these things?"
Nyota replied, "Since this morning, Doctor. We got them on K7 and put them in our rooms when the captain called us back from shore leave. Both of them had babies in that time."
Leonard laughed a little and then said, "Seems like you two got a bargain then."
Kate, trying to not feel awkward, said, "I don't know about a bargain. Maybe more than we bargained for."
Jim asked, "Well, are you two planning on running a nursery?"
Nyota shook her head, "That wasn't the plan, captain, but the tribbles had other plans, apparently."
Spock picked up one and began stroking it as he said, "A most curious creature, Captain. Its trilling seems to have a tranquilizing effect on the human nervous system. Fortunately, of course, I am immune to its effect," but continued to pet the tribble. As he realized everyone was staring at him, he sat it down and walked away, and Jim followed behind him.
Leonard continued looking at the tribbles and asked, "Do you ladies mind if I take one down to the lab and analyze it. I've never seen anything like it before."
Kate shook her head, and had to admit that she was curious as well, and said, "Not at all, I'll go with you. I was curious about it too."
Leonard seemed a little less comfortable with the idea of Kate tagging along, but nodded. She grabbed her tribble and stood up, before thinking about the four tribble babies that she had to deal with too. Fortunately, there were four people sitting there that wanted a tribble as well, so she gave away the tribble babies and followed after Leonard to the lab.
Leonard cleared his throat and asked, "So, what did you two learn about the tribbles when you got them?"
Kate petted her tribble softly to calm her nerves about being alone with Leonard before saying, "Honestly, not much. It's really unlike me to do something without researching beforehand, but it's almost like I couldn't resist it." As the tribble continued purring in her hand, she felt a sense of affection and calming. It really was strange, the effect the tribbles had on humans.
Leonard nodded and chuckled softly before looking at her and saying softly, "You're right, it is unlike you," then turned his attention forward again and said, "What have you figured out then?"
Kate shrugged, staring straight ahead as they walked toward med bay. It was really strange being alone with Leonard. She took a moment to reply, "Jones, the man we got them from, said they were easy to take care of. Just feed them oats and give them water three times a day. I guess they were pregnant when he gave them to us, but we had no way of knowing..." then trailed off as she thought for a bit and finished by saying, "I guess the only thing we've learned so far is what Spock said. Their purring has a calming effect on the nervous system."
She looked over at Leonard and saw him purse his lips while he was thinking, and looked away from him quickly. She was beginning to regret volunteering to come along for this little bit of research. As they walked through the med bay doors, Leonard finally sighed and said, "Well, maybe we can figure out what makes these little guys tick," then held out his hand toward her and asked, "May I?"
Kate's heart fluttered for a moment before she realized, with embarrassment, that he was asking for the tribble. She handed it over gently so that Leonard could scan it, then stood behind him as he ran the tricorder over the tribble and watched the results as they showed up on screen. She was astounded by what she saw.
The tribble was asexual. Fully capable of reproducing on it's own. She shook her head and asked, "You seeing this, Leonard?"
He shook his head and looked up at the screen to see what she was talking about, then sighed and shook his head as he said, "Leave it to you and Uhura to bring two asexual creatures on board that will reproduce quickly on their own."
There was teasing undercurrent in his voice that made Kate long for their old relationship, but she knew it would be better to try to stay professional. Rather than reply sarcastically as she normally would have, she continued to look at the scans and said, "And it seems like quickly is the right word," then pointed to the connection between the metabolism and the reproductive system and said, "There's a direct link between the metabolism and the reproductive system. Looks like the more they eat, the more tribbles we'll have."
Leonard rubbed his face and said, "Well, we can't starve it, but we can study it some more. I want to know why it's so calming to our nervous system."
Kate nodded and said, "I'll go get some oats so we can feed it. That'll help us study it's metabolic systems as well."
Leonard nodded and continued scanning the tribble. As she walked to the med bay doors, she turned around and looked at Leonard hunched over the exam table, studying the tribble closely, and felt her heart ache. She was reminded of all the times in academy that she fell for Leonard while watching him with patients. His focus and care with his patients, human or not, was the most attractive quality about him. No matter what professional distance she tried to keep, she'd never be able to get past that. With a sigh, she left to go get oats from her room so that she could get back to research with Leonard, but she knew she was going to have to make a decision about staying on the Enterprise sometime soon.
She was only gone from med bay for about fifteen minutes, but by the time she got back there were already more tribbles. She shook her head as she walked in and asked, "How many babies did it have this time?"
Leonard raised his eyebrows, almost not seeming to believe that there were more tribbles again, and said, "Three, this time. I can only assume that Uhura's had another litter, too. We're going to have more tribbles than we know what to do with soon."
Kate held out the package of oats and asked, "So, should we feed it?"
Leonard groaned, not wanting to, but agreed, "Yeah, we should. We've still got more to figure out."
It was a few hours later when Kate heard the med bay doors open behind them. They hadn't made much more progress in understanding why the tribbles had such a calming effect on the nervous system. They only thing they could guess so far, was that the frequency that the tribbles purred at resonated with the human nervous system, but that was only a guess. They did make a lot of progress in understanding it's metabolism, though, as there were now eleven tribbles instead of just one.
Kate looked up from the scan data and saw a frustrated Jim walking in. Jim looked between her and Leonard for a moment and asked, "I was going to ask what you had for a headache, but it seems like you two have a headache of your own."
Kate laughed sarcastically then said, "Try eleven headaches. What's your headache about?"
Jim jumped up on a table and said, "Baris, the man working on developing the Sherman planet is concerned about the Klingons on the space station. He's demanding we put more guards on the grain as well as the Klingons. We don't have that many security members to spare."
Kate sent Jim a sympathetic smile as Leonard handed Jim a few pills for a headache. Jim took them then asked, "Kate, how many tribbles did you bring down here?"
Kate shook her head and said, "One."
Jim closed his eyes for a moment, then shook his head before opening them and saying, "How'd we end up with eleven?"
Leonard tapped a few buttons on the screen to show Jim results of the scan as he said, "This ought to explain it. We haven't figured out quite how it works yet, but we have figured out that almost fifty percent of their metabolism is geared for reproduction."
Kate added on, "So, do you know what happens when you feed a tribble too much?"
Jim shrugged and said sarcastically, "You get a fat tribble?"
Leonard shook his head, "No, a bunch of hungry tribble babies."
Jim hopped off the table and clapped Leonard on the shoulder as he said, "Then we may have to open a maternity ward. I've got to get back to dealing with Baris, the Klingons, and security officers. With any luck, we'll be able to leave this space station soon," then exited med bay.
Kate looked over at the tribbles and Leonard before saying, "I'd like to go back to my room and rest for a bit. You good here?"
Leonard looked up at her before saying, "Yeah, I'm good. You okay?"
Clearly, she wasn't hiding emotions very well on her face right now, so she lied to cover it up, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired. It's been a long couple days."
Leonard nodded and dismissed her saying, "Yeah, it has been. I'll be here for a while, so head back when you're rested up."
Kate nodded and exited med bay and headed back to her room. She wasn't necessarily lying to Leonard when she had said she was tired. She really was. It was exhausting being around him and being polite and professional when everything inside of her was hurting and wanted to be with him. Avoiding him had at least let Kate pretend she wasn't as hurt as she was. Being around him again today reminded her how much she really cared for him, and had to admit to herself that she was in love with a man that wasn't willing to love her back.
She entered her room with a sigh as she made her decision. She sat down at the communicator and dialed in Chris's number and waited as it rang a few times. Each time it rang, she grew more and more nervous about what she was about to do.
Chris answered after the third ring and said, "Admiral Pike, here."
Kate smiled softly at his voice and said, "Hey, Chris. This is Kate."
She could hear his voice soften as he said, "Hi Kate. Where are you guys at right now?"
Kate told him, "Space Station K7. We're waiting on clearance to leave to take a payload to the Sherman Planet."
She heard his voice darken with worry as he said, "That's close to Klingon space. You guys need to be careful."
Kate nodded and smiled. Chris was really the closest thing she had ever had to a father, so she appreciated the concern, but said, "We are being careful. Jim's hot headed, but he knows to not start a war with the Klingons," then she paused for a moment before saying, "Chris, as much as I love talking to you, I didn't just call to be social."
Chris paused in reply, then questioned, "Okay, what's going on?"
She could hear the concern in his voice, so shook her head as she said, "Everything's fine. I just wanted to talk to you about transferring off the Enterprise."
The other end went silent and Kate waited for him to reply. When he finally did, he asked, "Are you sure everything is fine, Kate. The Enterprise is the best ship you could be on. You're with Jim, you're a chief medical officer. Why do you want to give that up?"
Kate hesitated for a moment. She couldn't tell Chris she was running away from Leonard, so she tried to think of a lie quickly, and all she could come up with was, "Jim's the problem. Don't you think people will question my position as long as he's my captain?"
She heard Chris sigh before he said, "I'm not approving this right now, Kate. You need to think about it some more. If you still want to transfer in a few weeks, call me again and we'll talk again."
Kate nodded and said, "Okay, thanks Chris. Take care," and he responded in kind before they ended their call. She sat back in her seat and crossed her arms. She wasn't going to change her mind, so she wished that he would have just agreed to it right away. Now she had to face at least a few more weeks of being with Leonard on this star ship.
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Sorry this has taken so long to get out. I don't have a ton of time to write, so I just write in bits and pieces until I get to the end of a chapter. I'm so pleased that there are people reading my story and enjoying it! Be sure to let me know what you think and vote! Take care! :-)