 chair to lift an eyebrow at the screen. "To my knowledge, the Orions have no allies."  Which told you everything you needed to know about the Orions. Still... "Just because we don't know about any allies doesn't mean there are none." I resisted an urge to toss Spock a puckish grin he wouldn't appreciate. "After all, even the Devil had friends."  He tipped his head in grave acknowledgment of my point, and I felt for one startled moment as though he were teasing me. _He's a Vulcan, not Gary Mitchell. Vulcans don't tease._ I turned forward again to hide my chagrin, and tapped my chair intercom with the side of my hand. "Bridge to transporter room."  "Transporter room. Scott here."  It worried me sometimes that my chief engineer spent so much time with the transporter. I tried to reassure myself that it was a fascinating piece of equipment, with all manner of systems to explore. But sometimes I just couldn't shake the suspicion that there was more to Scott's constant tending than mere affection. Probably not something I should mention around Dr. McCoy. "Scotty, can you get a fix on the life-forms inside that alien vessel?"  "Fifteen to twenty of them," he reported, managing to sound pleased with himself and a little frustrated all at the same time. "Maybe as m