Stowaway (a Star Trek reboot/2009 movie fanfic) UNDER EDITING

Chapter 11: Trouble with Tribbles part 1

I just realised I made a major (for me) fuck-up. I called it a datapad but that's too futuristic. In TOS they had PADD's. Sometime in the future, I'll reread the whole story up to this chapter and edit the words...well, obviously I'm going to do that anyway because I'm sure there are a plethora of autocorrect fuck-ups for me to fix. If you see any of them, please PM me or leave a comment because I'm a lazy-arse teenager and I can't be stuffed spending hours poring over this story because Apple is a bitch.

Chapter 11: Trouble with Tribbles part 1

I was back to work, sitting at Pavel's chair. Yep, he got sick. A bad case of N'angian flu. The newest crew member, P'yoltem (who had come aboard while I'd been 'away') had carried it onto the ship. It was really annoying because half of the human crew had gotten it. Fortunately, Vulcans seemed to be immune. I'd joked to Spock that Vulcan white blood cells had said it was illogical to get the virus, which had made him raise an eyebrow and tell me I was too immature. Yay. Although, after the whole 'you're Anya's godfather' thing, he'd been a lot nicer to me. I was feeling pretty good about that decision, but Pavel was mad at me for making a fairly life-changing decision for Anya without him. I'd told him he could decide Carden's godparent/godparents without me, which made him a little less inclined to divorce me (joking!) but still hadn't made him forgive me. "Captain Kirk! There is an immobile ship ten kilometres starboard. Should we investigate?" Sulu inquired Jim, who frowned a little, but nodded.

"Yes. Take us over there and send a team of three. Send Commander Chekova, Lieutenant Uhura and Commander Spock. We might need Uhura's language skills and Bella and Spock are good at various things." I rolled my eyes.

"Gee, thanks. It's not like I can run a ship on my own. I haven't built one from scratch or fought my way through two different species idea of prison or anything." He just looked at me. "Okay, okay, I'm going!" I made my way down to the transporter room with Spock and Nyota on my tail. The only humans that work on the Bridge who didn't get sick were Nyota, Jim and Sulu. Other than that they were all out of commission.

The trip to the non-working ship was really short and in a few seconds we had scoured the wreckage and found nothing. I pressed the button on my communicator, "Chekova to Enterprise, three to beam up." In an instant we were back in the transporter room. "I'm gonna knock off for a bit and check on me family." Nyota nodded and took Spock's hand, dragging him to the Bridge (I hope...). I made my way to my quarters and picked my son up out of his cot. "Hello Carden, my little bubbly baby!" I cooed to him in a baby voice and walked into the main bedroom where Pavel was sleeping. I didn't want to disturb him so I took Carden with me to the Bridge. Anya was playing somewhere on the ship, exploring as four-year-olds do. I felt bad for missing most of her birthdays, but that would never happen ever again. I'd sworn it the day I got back after the Khaning I'd received. I sat Carden in my lap and he tried to press the buttons with his little 6-month-old hands. He nearly succeeded a few times, too, but I pulled his chubby little arms back to his side. We sat like that for hours, me watching the empty space roll by and Carden dribbling all over his bib when suddenly he started coughing. I wasn't worried, thinking he'd simply inhaled some saliva, but when the coughing didn't stop for a full minute I called Bones on my communicator. "Bones! Please, something's wrong with Carden. Can you come to the Bridge ASAP?!"

"I don't know, Bella. It looks a whole lot like the N'angian flu, but it can't be because of his Vulcan genes. I'll take him down for testing and I'll call you up if anything happens." I nodded my head slightly and went back to my work. Time practically flew by as I waited for Bones to summon me. My communicator buzzed and I flipped it open in a second.

"Commander Chekova here!" Bones voice drifted through the speaker.

"Bella, you'd better come down here and see this." I panicked and ran down to the MedBay, leaving the Bridge with only four crew members. I really didn't care as I had my son to worry about. I burst into the MedBay to see Bones playing with Carden.

"What's wrong with my baby?!" Bones smiled and shook his head, beckoning me over.

"Absolutely nothing. He was coughing because his lungs were going through the final stage of the changes." I looked at him in confusion so he continued, rolling his eyes. "He inherited your mutations from the Felinia's experiments." I suddenly recognised the symptoms in Carden I'd had. I'd been the only one to undergo the needles and the changes and while they were taking effect, I'd coughed and sneezed and felt generally awful, it was like a flu, but it made me less likely to die if I got sick or whatever. I really hadn't had any physical changes until after I'd gotten shot, which had kick-started the formula.

"So he got sick and it activated the formula he inherited from my mutated genes?" Bones nodded.

"I'd say it was an infection in that scab he got from Anya pushing him." Anya had pushed Carden over two days prior and he had gotten a fairly bad carpet burn. I'd scolded Anya and everything but now I'd have to hug her.

"My baby is invincible! Or...close to it." Bones nodded, holding Carden out to me. I took him in my arms and walked to our quarters to put him to bed. Before walking back to the Bridge.

My superhuman-ness hasn't been exactly working lately because I'd been through so much. Y'know, like getting sick, giving birth, nearly dying and so on. But since that was over, I was at my full strength again, able to bash my way through some serious shit with only my fists of fury. Yay for me, right?

Anyway, I was glad to be back in business. The past (almost) four years had been rather taxing on me and I was looking forward to an easy life. I set Carden down in his cot and pulled out my padd. I did some maths and realised we'd started our journey in late December 2259 on the Gregorian calendar. We'd stopped using that almost 200 years ago, in favour for the star date system, but I still liked to find out what month it was - would be - in Old Times. Anya wouldn't have a full year in kindergarten though, as we'd get back when she would've been 5 for seven months and the school year starts in February (yay for new schooling system!). I smiled at the thought of Anya going to school and making friends when a Tribble ran past my feet. I frowned a little and followed it, trying and failing to catch it. I gasped in dread when it ate some kind of bread lump somebody had carelessly dropped on the floor (who eats on the Bridge? Who?! Oh...it was probably Anya) and scurries off. I turn around and realise I'm alone. I pull out my communicator and get a direct line to Jim. "Jim? I'm on the Bridge, ALONE and a Tribble just scurried off."

"So? We can find it easily. It probably just escaped from the Bridge."

"No, you don't understand. It ate some bread."

"Shit!" Oh dear lord...I could already see six more Tribbles scurrying around the Bridge. I watched in absolute horror as more Tribbles finished off the bread lump (why the hell didn't I pick it up? Goddammit!) and scurried off. I went out into the corridor as Spock came in and I my mouth dropped. Tribbles everywhere. I literally had to wade my way through them and to the MedBay (MedBay, sickbay, whatever!) where Bones was, dealing with Tribbles trying to overwhelm him and his sandwich. Why the fuck was he eating in a sterile place?!

The Tribbles finally got the sandwich and went off to multiply, leaving only four hundred gazillion in the room. I groaned in absolute annoyance and slapped Bones lightly on the cheek. "What the - ah!" I was about to swear but a Tribble bit me (I hope...). "Why were you eating in here?!" He blushes a little.

"It was an accident, god I'm a doctor, not a neat freak!" I narrowed my eyes at him and waded out of the Tribble-filled room. I pretty much swam through the corridors until I arrived at my quarters (why do they call them quarters? It's not like I get 1/4 of the ship!) to find Anya and Carden on Pavel's shoulders. Pavel seemed to have made a stunning recovery, which was good. I laughed a little when I saw Carden lifting up Tribbles climbing Pavel and throwing them away shouting,

"Leave Papa lone!" His superhuman-ness was adorable. I waded over and frowned at Pavel.

"How do we destroy Tribbles?"

"I do not know!"

To be continued...

Contest:

How do you destroy Tribbles?

The person with the most creative and interesting answer gets a dedication. I know the conventional way, but that's overused ;)