A/N: Thank you so much for the favorites, followers, and reviews! I'm so glad you're enjoying this story. Now that Gabby has started to open up I can let her personality show and start adding my own flair to the episodes. Enjoy!

Jim grinned as he looked at the covered lump on his bed. A giggle escaped from under the covers as it shook with laughter. "Come on Gabby, let's get dressed. Pike's gonna be calling me any minute." Not even a second later his intercom went off and Jim sighed. "Speak of the devil." He walked over to his desk and answered the call, plastering a giant smile on his face. "Good morning sir!"

Pike looked at him with a grin and raised an eyebrow. "I think that dress is a bit small for you Jim."

Jim looked down at the gold dress that he was still holding and blushed slightly. "Sorry sir, I was still trying to get Gabby changed. Speaking of which," he turned to the still covered girl. "Gabby! Come here sweetheart, I want to introduce you to someone."

Gabby poked her head out of the covers and slowly pulled them back. She shyly walked over to Jim and allowed him to pull her into his lap. She ducked her head slightly at the sight of the older man on the screen but kept her eyes on him. Pike smiled softly. "Hi Gabby, I'm Chris."

"Hi," Gabby said in a small voice.

Jim grinned down at her. "Chris is my boss. You'll get to meet him in person when we return to Earth."

Gabby looked up at him. "We're going to Earth?" She had never been, having been born in space, but she had always wondered about her parents' home planet, and she supposed hers.

Pike grinned. "Not quite yet. You'll have a few more missions before you come back, which was why I called."

Jim turned serious and nodded. "Yes sir."

"We need you to go to the dying planet Psi 2000 and pick up the scientific party that's staying there. Once they're on board you'll remain and observe the disintegration of the planet," Pike ordered.

Jim nodded again. "Yes sir."

"Good. And as always, keep me posted." Pike turned his gaze to Gabby. "And it was nice to meet you Gabby. I look forward to meeting you in person soon." Gabby nodded but didn't say anything as Pike hung up.

"Alright Gabby, now we seriously need to get you dressed."

After finally getting dressed and getting breakfast, Jim relayed their orders to the senior staff. Within a few hours the Enterprise was orbiting the planet with Spock and one of their science officers, Tormolen, down on the planet, but they didn't find what they were expecting.

Spock and Tormolen walked around the base in their protective suits and recorded their findings. The scientists whom they had been sent to pick up were scattered around the base, all dead. The entire based was frozen and the bodies had already accumulated a decent amount of ice piled on them. Spock turned to the young man. "Check out the life-support systems."

"Right sir." Tormolen walked over to a console in the wall and pressed a few buttons. "All life systems were off sir," he reported.

Spock walked over to one of the female scientists. He glanced at the woman's neck. "Someone strangled this woman."

"The other four are back there," Tormolen reported pointing to the back of the base where four other bodies were either in the bathroom or one of the bedrooms.

"Dead?"

"Right sir."

"Engineer at his post?" Spock asked.

Tormolen looked over to where a man was hunched over something at the desk. "He's frozen there like he didn't care."

Anyone who knew Spock well would be able to see the slight frown on his face, even through the protective material surrounding him. "And the rest?"

Tormolen shuddered slightly. "Well, better look for yourself Mister Spock. One man was taking a shower fully clothed."

Spock nodded and went to the back of the base to look for himself. As Spock left him, Tormolen went over to the frozen desk and pulled out a machine. Before he could use it though his nose twitched irritably. He shook his head a bit but the itch wouldn't go away. Looking around for Spock, Tormolen took his glove off and placed it on the desk. He quickly scratched his nose and went to pick up his glove again when the cold immediately seeped in. He didn't notice a small orange goo jump onto his hand before he replaced his glove.

Spock came back into the main room. "Be certain we expose ourselves to nothing," he warned. He pulled out his communicator. "Spock here. Do you read Enterprise?"

"Kirk, affirmative," Jim responded.

"All station personnel are dead," Spock reported.

Jim sighed. This was not a good start to their mission. Now they would have to find out what killed the scientific party, and Jim would be forced to contact their families with the bad news. "What caused it?" he asked.

"Unknown Captain. It's like nothing we've dealt with before."

Jim nodded. "Alright. Return to the Enterprise. We'll debrief after. Kirk out." Jim looked at Chekov. "Mr. Chekov, maintain our orbit around the planet."

Chekov nodded. "Yes sir."

Gabby frowned slightly from her spot at the foot of the captain's chair. She had been working on a reading program on her PADD that Spock had installed to start her education. "Why are we staying?"

"We still have a mission to complete," Jim answered. "We have to continue observing the disintegration of the planet. We also need to find out what happened to the crew." Gabby nodded but she was already getting a bad feeling about this mission.

As soon as Spock and Tormolen were beamed back to the ship the First Officer turned to Scotty. "You received my signal Mr. Scott."

Scotty nodded. "Yes sir. Decontaminate."

Scotty pressed the button for the intercom as Spock and Tormolen entered the decontamination chamber. "Captain here," Jim's voice rang in the transporter room.

"Spock and Tormolen aboard sir," Scotty reported. "We're holding them in the chamber for decontamination."

Jim nodded though Scotty couldn't see it. "Better have Medicine look them over too. Tell Mr. Spock I'll meet him there in ten minutes. Kirk out."

He looked down at Gabby for a second. He didn't see any harm in bringing her to medical with him, although she no longer felt the need to always be around him. She was even starting to speak to the other crewmembers, little by little. Still, Jim never tired of having her near him, and he always felt more comfortable having her nearby. Perhaps it was the "new parent" feeling that people got, never wanting to leave their newborns alone. He knew he would have to loosen up eventually, both so he could do his duty effectively off ship, but also for Gabby's sake. She would need to learn to be without him eventually.

With a smile he tapped the little girl on the head. "Wanna come with me to medical? I'm going to check on Spock and Tormolen."

Gabby had never met Tormolen but she nodded. She had grown closer to the half-Vulcan, or as least she thought she was close to him; it was sometimes hard to tell without him showing emotions. And she would never pass up a chance to see Bones, unless it was for a hypo. She gathered her PADD and took Jim's hand so he could lead her off the bridge.

Bones already had Spock and Tormolen laid out on examination tables when Jim and Gabby walked in. "You're fine Joe," Bones said to Tormolen. "Up and out of there." He turned to Spock with a slight scowl. "Mr. Spock? Your pulse is 242, your blood pressure is practically nonexistent, assuming you call that green stuff in your veins blood."

Spock pushed himself up onto his elbows. "The readings are perfectly normal for me Doctor, thank you, and as for my anatomy being different from yours, I am delighted. Captain," he said acknowledging Jim.

"How are they?" Jim asked.

"They're fine Jim," Bones said.

But Tormolen shook his head and started shaking. "Terrible Captain. It was terrible. They were just sitting, like they didn't care. Whatever was happening, they didn't care. I keep wondering-."

"You keep wondering if man was meant to be out here," Jim finished for him. Gabby gripped his pant leg tightly. Jim put a soft hand on her head and continued. "You keep wondering, you keep signing on." Jim smiled sympathetically. He had had those thoughts before. He turned to Spock. "Any guesses Mr. Spock? Any ideas of what happened down there?"

"I wish I could say Captain," and he actually sounded remorseful, unless Jim was just hearing things. "The circumstances were quite bizarre, however our record tapes may show us something."

"Six dead. Six people dead," Tormolen cried out. Gabby gasped and buried her face in Jim's leg.

"You better get some rest," Jim said to the young man.

Tormolen nodded tiredly. "Yes sir." He slumped his way out of sickbay.

"Set up those tapes Mr. Spock," Jim ordered. "We'll see if the answers are there." He waited until Spock climbed off the bed before walking out of sickbay with him and Gabby.

Bones watched as the three walked out and turned as a nurse approached him with a PADD. "The lab status report Doctor."

Bones nodded. "Oh, thank you."

Before heading to the briefing room, the trio stopped by the rec room and peeked inside. Sulu and a young man maybe two or three years younger than Jim sat at a table talking. Jim looked down at Gabby. "Gabby, why don't you hang out with Sulu and Riley for a bit while Spock and I work? I'll come get you a bit later, after we take care of some stuff."

Gabby wasn't stupid. Even at 5 years old she could tell when an adult was trying to get rid of her; growing up on a ship with only adults had quickly taught her that. "Okay."

Jim ruffled her hair before she could walk away. "I promise we won't be long."

On the way to the briefing room Jim called Bones and Scotty to meet them as well. In the room Spock was quick to bring up the tapes up on the screen. "Here's the spectro-analysis tape."

The video showed the icy base and the frozen scientists all in their final resting places. Jim frowned as the camera showed everything. "Almost as though they were irrational, drugged. An engineer sitting there, apparently oblivious to everything. A woman strangled. A crewman with a phaser pistol in his hand."

Spock nodded. "He'd used the computer room as if it were an amusement gallery."

"And a fully clothed man frozen to death in a shower. If the image wasn't so ugly, it would be laughable." Jim looked around the table. "Not even a theory gentlemen?"

"Definitely not drugs or intoxication," Bones said. "The bio-analysis on the tapes proves that conclusively."

"It could be some form of space madness we've never heard of," Spock suggested, "but it would have to be caused by something. Our spectro-readings showed no contamination, no unusual elements present."

"Or at least none your tricorders could register," Scotty pointed out.

"Instruments register only those things they're designed to register," Spock countered. "Space still contains infinite unknowns."

Jim sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Earth science needs the closet possible measurement of the breakup of this planet. To do this we need the Enterprise in a critically tight orbit. Question: could what happened down there to those people create any unusual danger to this vessel and crew?" Jim asked.

The three officers looked at each other before Spock answered, "We will need top efficiency Captain. It'll be a tricky orbit. When the planet begins to go, there may be drastic changes in gravity, mass, magnetic field."

Jim scowled. "The purpose of a briefing gentlemen is to get me answers based on your abilities and experience. In a critical orbit there's no time for surprise."

Scotty grinned. "Unless you people on the Bridge start taking showers with your clothes on, my engines can pull us out of anything," he said confidently. "We'll be warping out of orbit within a half second of getting your command. If we can escape a black hole we can certainly escape a decaying planet."

The intercom beeped and Nyota's voice filled the room. "Bridge to Captain."

"Kirk here."

"Scanners report sudden 4 degree shift in planet magnetic field. A change in mass also sir," Nyota reported.

"It's beginning," Spock said. "Unusually rapid shifts."

"On our way Lieutenant," Jim said. "I'll hold you to that half second Scotty," he semijoked.

At the same time Sulu was explaining a very important pastime to Riley and Gabby. Gabby was listening with rabid fascination but Riley was looking skeptical. "Foil," Sulu was saying. "It's a rapier. A thin sword."

"All right," Riley said. "So what do you do with it?"

Sulu stared at him. "What do you mean, what do you do with it?"

Riley leaned back in his chair and smirked. "Self-defense? Mayhem? Shish kabob?"

"You practice."

"For what?"

"Can I try?" Gabby asked.

Sulu chuckled. "You'll have to ask the Captain that." He looked up when Tormolen walked in, a slight hunch in his step and a plate in his hand. "Hi Joey."

Riley grinned at the man. "Last week it was botany he was trying to get me interested in. I was supposed to be collecting leaves, plant specimens."

"Your attitude is all wrong," Sulu argued. "Fencing tones the muscle, sharpens the eye, improves the posture. Why, I saved Captain Kirk from a Romulan using fencing. You tell him Joey. Explain to him." Sulu frowned when Tormolen didn't answer. He was staring into his plate of food but hadn't touched any of it. "Hey Joey, you feeling all right?"

Tormolen startled violently and glared at Sulu. "Get off me! You don't rank me and you don't have pointed ears, so just…get off my neck!"

Sulu frowned and looked at Riley. "What's with him?"

"Nothing!" Tormolen shouted.

"Attention," Nyota's voice said over the ship-wide intercom. "Engine room on standby alert. All duty personnel to the Bridge. Acknowledge."

Sulu stood up and took Gabby's hand, pushing her slightly behind him and away from the erratic man. "You sure you're all right now Joe? We've got to leave."

Tormolen shook his head as he stared into his food again. "We're all a bunch of hypocrites, sticking our noses into something that we've got no business. What are we doing out here anyway?"

"Take it easy Joe," Sulu warned.

Tormolen shook his head again. "We bring pain and trouble with us, leave men and women stuck out on freezing planets until they die. Leave children to be orphaned after letting their parents be attacked and killed out in the middle of nowhere." Gabby flinched at that. "What are we doing out here in space? Good? What good? We're polluting it, destroying it. We've got no business being out here. No business."

Gabby frowned. "But we are doing good. We're helping people."

Tormolen glared at the little girl and she hid more behind Sulu. Now Riley stood up and stepped forward cautiously. "Take it easy Joe."

"Now calm down," Sulu said.

Tormolen grabbed the knife next to his plate and held it out in front of him like a weapon. "If a man was supposed to fly, he'd have wings. If he was supposed to be out in space, he wouldn't need air to breathe, wouldn't need life-support systems to keep him from freezing to death."

"Hey Joey, put the knife down, huh?" Riley said. He spared a side-glance at Sulu who was pushing Gabby further back while slowly approaching Tormolen.

"You're all steamed up Joe." Sulu let go of Gabby's hand and subtly pushed her further away. Gabby reluctantly let go and stepped back, far enough that Sulu wouldn't need to worry about her safety, but still close enough that if something went wrong he could grab her.

Tormolen continued to rant, his hands shaking and his forehead drenched with sweat. "We don't belong here, it's not ours. Not ours. Destroying and watching. We don't belong, I don't belong. Six people died down there. Why do I deserve to live?"

Sulu's eyes widened in alarm as Tormolen brought the knife to his chest. "What are you doing Joe?"

"Hey Joey, put the knife down," Riley pleaded. He got close enough to finally grab his arm and pull it down. "Let me have the knife!"

"Let go!" Tormolen shouted.

"You're just getting in a sweat about-!" Sulu jumped the man as well and the three wrestled over the butter knife. "Let me have the knife!" Riley said again.

"Joey, don't be a fool," Sulu said.

"Let me go," Tormolen resignedly.

"Joey, give me the knife," Riley tried again. The three fell to the floor and Tormolen stopped moving. With a grunt Riley pushed the man over. Gabby gasped at the knife that was now sticking out of Tormolen's stomach. Riley ran over the intercom as Sulu put pressure on the wound. "Emergency! Rec room, area three nine. We need medics!"

Jim, Spock, and Bones heard the call before they made it to the Bridge, and for a split second Jim's heart stopped.