InsaneJournal

Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock tried to hold regular informal meetings about the goings-on on board the Enterprise, though sometimes they skipped one or two, sometimes they were more formal, and sometimes they were less. If he had anyone else for a first officer, Jim suspected they might more often be less formal, perhaps more laced with crew and traveler gossip, but as Spock was his first officer, that rarely happened. It was probably a good thing, in the end, that their meetings were actually productive.

That morning in particular, Jim had just received thorough orders from Starfleet Command regarding an upcoming mission to a desert-like planet, Fornax. It was ruled by a High Council, known for its distilleries and gambling houses, and they wanted to talk to the Federation about future trade agreements. The Enterprise would be arriving within three weeks to spend about a week there while negotiations were underway.

Kirk handed Spock a PADD and then sat on the sofa in his captain's office, crossing his legs and sipping from his coffee mug. "Looks like one of the negotiations events includes an evening at a casino. Are you up for that, Spock?" He grinned.

Spock was pleased they finally had a proper mission and that they seemed to be returning to as normal a routine as possible given the large amount of occupants living aboard the Enterprise as though it was a cruise ship. But when Kirk mentioned that one of the negotiations events included an evening at a casino, he raised an eyebrow.

"I can hardly understand why such an event would be necessary," he mentioned. "I avoid casinos on principle as the odds will always be stacked against you. Though, that seems to be the norm when it comes to our missions, does it not?"

Jim laughed at that and shrugged. "The note from Admiral Paris states that the Fornaxians view games of luck and chance as, er, 'getting to know you' opportunities. You're welcome to sit them out, Spock. I'm sure I can lose enough money for the both of us."

He hoped that the High Council would be welcoming enough of the ship and the travelers to afford them all some time on the planet's surface. Their shore leave on Earth had been too long, he thought, and now both the travelers and the crew seemed to be going stir-crazy already.

"I'm quite certain that if our travelers are allowed into the casinos they will waste enough of the Federation's credits that our hosts will be satisfied at the income," Spock replied. "Still, I would be more than willing to stand next to you and calculate your odds, if you would like?"

The corner of his mouth quirked up, and it became clear Spock was teasing. His relationship with Jim was relaxed enough after all this time to allow for such.

"If you feel that's necessary, Spock, I'd be glad for you to turn a pessimistic eye on every card I draw or die I roll." He grinned.

Jim cleared his throat. "The negotiations themselves shouldn't be very hard. I'll have Admiral Pike review all of the terms and conditions on both sides - same with you - before we even get there. Hopefully they won't throw any surprises into the situation and it'll be relatively painless." Minus the addition, he assumed, of his dress uniform. He was always uncomfortable wearing that.

"It seems, Captain, that anytime you state something should not be difficult, it becomes so one way or the other. However, I think in this case the probability is high that you are correct." Spock believed this was more of a mission test run, while the Enterprise was loaded up with travelers.

"And I would be most willing to provide you with commentary as that would give me a purpose in attending such a function." Kirk may not have been looking forward to his dress uniform, Spock wasn't looking forward to being polite as their hosts stacked the decks against them.

"Perhaps we should limit the credits the travelers receive if they're able to disembark. Of course, we should probably start utilizing currency aboard the ship."

"Oh come on, Spock, it's never my fault when things go wrong," he said, even though they both knew that wasn't always true. He did have something to do, now and again, with throwing wrenches into otherwise simple situations.

"You want to tell the travelers they can't spend money on shore leave?" he asked. "I mean, I'm all for saying that we don't give them any kind of stipend so the only ones who can spend anything are those who get paid for working aboard the ship, but I don't know if that's entirely fair. Not every traveler has the right skills to work around here."

Spock responded to Kirk's protest with a simple raise of his brow. Nothing more, nothing less.

"No," Spock said. "I'm merely suggesting that we don't give them unlimited access to places such as the lounge, and rather change the distribution of stipends. Given the increasing influx of travelers, this is not unreasonable and should not cause too much of a disturbance."

Finally handing the PADD back, Spock added, "Has anyone considered that if this keeps going we will run out of space to house additional travelers? Other than when I raised the point in January?"

Jim didn't think restricting access to the lounge was going to go over well but he shrugged. "Sure, we can take a look at what the Federation is giving us and see how to better square that all away with the travelers and our resources available. Why don't you take the lead on that?"

He tucked the PADD under his arm. "If it comes to that, I'm sure we'll be asked to return to Earth and be refitted for more quarters space. In the meantime, travelers will just be housing 4 to a room, tightening up the quarters. I'll do it to them before I do it to any of our crew."

"It seems to me that the logical solution would be to return to Earth and allow the travelers to settle there rather than refitting the Enterprise for more quarters space," Spock pointed out, wondering once again why no one else seemed to see that.

Then he paused, and looked directly at Kirk. "I suppose we should consider ourselves fortunate. If any of our travelers were of your caliber, they would have found their way to the bridge and attempted to assume control of the ship already."

"Ah, but here's what's illogical about that, Mister Spock," Jim said casually. "Here, all the travelers are in one place, which makes the coming and going, which we haven't been able to determine a pattern for, controlled. If we were to let travelers settle anywhere they wanted, even on Earth where the possibilities for moving around and traveling, then what happens when a new traveler pops up? What happens when one disappears and doesn't show up to work? What happens to the ability to keep track of and pay attention to these people, some of whom are from entirely different worlds or even four hundred years ago on Earth?"

The corner of Kirk's mouth twitched. "Oh, I'm sure there are some who want to do that." He could think of a few. "But I trust our security team here to make sure there's no chance of that happening."

"That could easily be monitored with restricted travel from Starfleet Headquarters, or another similar location," Spock replied. "Technology has advanced considerably since four hundred years ago on Earth. Tracking is not difficult to maintain."

He paused a moment, recalling Dr. McCoy's words on the necklace he'd given Nyota and did not expand further on the subject.

Jim raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps not, but do you really think people want to be tracked like that?" It was one thing to sign up for a program like Starfleet or high-intel missions, where tracking might be necessary. Or to wear a comm badge that kept track during away missions. These people didn't exactly sign up for any of this.

"Right now, I think we're doing just fine having everyone on board. If it gets to be too much, you and I can go talk to HQ about it again."

Spock saw the logical need of tracking more than a personal response to it, but recognized the argument for it was moot, presently. "Indeed. For now, the most pressing issue is the upcoming mission to Fornax. I will continue to look over the details."

"Very good," Jim said soundly. "And you can rest assured that any carousing or gambling that needs to happen, I'll take care of it.

"For once it might actually be part of the mission," Spock replied, the faint traces of a smile visible. "I believe that might be a first, Captain."