Home on the Enterprise - An Old Man's War/Star Trek TOS Crossover

Day 2

16 Magellan, 2270

At 0500, the only people awake on the USS Enterprise were a skeleton crew working the night shift, and Puvar, who had woken from her slumber three hours previously. She judged it to be a good time to contact the black box from the CDFS Raptor, as the odds of her being caught by the crew were a mere forty-seven to one, whereas during the day it was a much riskier three hundred eighty-five to one. Puvar closed her eyes and pinged the black box on an encrypted wavelength with her BrainPal. It pinged back. Puvar exited her assigned quarters and made her way towards the turbolift at the end of the corridor, intending to gain access to the Bridge and manoeuvre the ship so she could get to the black box. However, she was stopped before she could enter the turbolift.

"It's green," one man said, furrowing his eyebrows.

"That's Spock's new pet," another said. "He claims it's human."

A third man snorted derisively.

"Dr McCoy has determined that Puvar is mostly, but not entirely, human," Spock stated, coming into view. "She is nobody's pet." He let his gaze flit over to the person in question. "Follow me."

Obediently, Puvar trailed after her superior officer. They walked in silence for a few minutes. When Spock stopped in front of a set of doors, they opened with a hiss. Spock passed through the doors and sat down at a table. On its surface was an unusual contraption of three main levels, with four smaller squares on the far corners. The contraption was set up with chess pieces.

"Do you play chess?" Spock asked.

"I am cognisant of the rules of chess," Puvar said, "but the contraption on the table does not resemble a chessboard."

"Three-dimensional chess is quite similar to two-dimensional chess," Spock said. He slotted a data card into the computer in the corner of the rec room. "Here. Familiarise yourself with the rules, and we can play later."

Puvar sat down at the computer and began scanning the rules, storing the data in her BrainPal. As Spock had said, it was very similar to the chess she knew. The most complicated aspect was the attack boards, but her BrainPal processed it with ease.

Unbeknownst to Puvar, Spock was watching her intently as she read the rules for three-dimensional chess. The text on her screen flickered past impossibly quickly, and Spock wondered, not for the first time, if there was something superhuman about her beyond – or perhaps as a product of – her genetic engineering. Only moments after beginning to read, Puvar removed the data card and handed it back to Spock.

"I am ready to play," she said.

***

"Checkmate," Puvar said for the thirteenth time in a row. Her tone was as robotic as ever, unaffected by her triumphs.

"Fascinating," Spock murmured. Puvar had only learned to play three-dimensional chess two hours ago, and he had not beaten her a single time.

"What's fascinating, Mr Spock?" Kirk asked.

"You only beat me at chess when you make a completely illogical move that I cannot respond to, correct?" the Vulcan said.

"Yes," Kirk said slowly.

"Well, Puvar's thinking is utterly logical, which means that we should be evenly matched in that regard. Yet she has beaten me thirteen out of thirteen games in the past two hours. My chances of winning are better when I play against the ship's computer."

"She could just be a better player than you, Spock," McCoy suggested.

"Unlikely," Spock said. "Puvar did not know how to play three-dimensional chess until this morning."