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at a time. To store any more, we'll have to use ship's computer memory, which operates on a different process entirely. If there are thirty sleepers on the station, we could put two of them per week into the TEREC. That would take—"
    "Fifteen weeks."
    "Which means we'd have to stay in orbit around the planetoid for at least the time necessary to retrieve all the sleepers. Or we could dump the entire Enterprise library to store the form memories."
    "Against regulations, Mr. Veblen."
    "Precisely."
    "Why not beam them up frozen, then beam each into the unit as his time comes?"
    "There's the rub, Jim," McCoy said. "With radiation damage, we can only risk transporting them once. The second time, they're dead."
    "Was that the problem with regs you mentioned?"
    "No. Even if we do get them up here, we'll have to program changes into the vats to restore their myelin sheaths. The monitors may not let me do that. I told you I wasn't sure the regs made much sense."
    "You told me you didn't want to be a lawyer. Is there any reason why we can't ferry the sleepers up in the shuttlecraft?"
    "There could be risks," McCoy said. "Hibernacula require very stable power sources, and constant low temperatures. We may have to take the chance, but I wish we had other choices."
    "Gentlemen, is there anything further I should know before we begin our rescue mission?"
    "Very likely, Captain, there are a great many things you should know," Spock said. "None of which we are able to tell you."
    Mason made a note of that, as well, and underlined it twice. "Captain," she said as the officers stood to return to their duties. "Since this is such an unusual mission, am I to be dropped off on my planet before you depart?"
    Kirk hardly looked at her as he passed. "Not unless you directly request it."
    She watched him follow Spock out of the briefing room door, mentally kicking herself. She couldn't back down now. The man was so arrogant! Why couldn't he have made it easier on her, instead of throwing the ball in her court? She'd show herself to be a complete coward, and if she did come back to Yalbo, word would get around … and she would be accused of shaming them all. In front of nonhumans, too.
    She gripped her notepad tightly, chewing on her lower lip and trying to still the nagging voice in the back of her mind, a voice saying she was too young, too inexperienced; saying that FNS had made a bad mistake sending her to the Enterprise .

 
Chapter Five

    Kirk was eternally fascinated by the procedures for making the Enterprise ship—shape for a long voyage. He was as familiar with every action as a man watching his wife dress in the morning, and yet … it had that same sort of fascination, of responsibility mixed with a perverse and impossible kind of ownership. No individual could own a starship, any more than a man could actually own his wife. Still, the Enterprise was his. He wondered what the day would be like when he had to give her up, and whether, if any of his Starfleet colleagues assumed her command, they could possibly remain friends.
    From the captain's chair, he watched preparations on the various displays accessible to him, the largest being the forward viewing screen. At the touch of his fingers—resting on buttons set into his chair arms—and at the sound of his voice, he could make the Enterprise come alive. Stroking …
    He put such errant nonsense from his thoughts (and a good thing neither Spock nor McCoy could read minds at a distance) and concentrated on a report from Scott. The preventive maintenance procedures had been completed in record time, though they would still need four hours at warp two for the Jeffries refit.
    Scott had suggested that three of his engineering crew receive notes of commendation. Kirk composed the notes on his command console and directed they be entered into the ship's record and individual crew files; Scott's recommendations were as good as gold, as far as he was concerned.
    The Andorran, Lieutenant