Something had evidently changed by the time Uhura transferred to the U.S.S. Potemkin “Yes, I do recall you going off on your own during several shore leaves,” said Commander Vintnef nd’Elogat, a bulbous-browed, slender-faced Arkenite who had been Uhura’s department head during her time as junior communications officer aboard that ship. “You did not discuss your activities, but I don’t believe they were work-related. On one occasion, I briefly glimpsed you meeting up with a human male, evidently a civilian, with whom you seemed quite familiar. I believe he would have been deemed attractive by human standards.”

Uhura was surprised. Her personal logs and interviews with other crewmates had referenced various shipboard romances and the occasional shore leave fling, but gave no hint of an ongoing affair with a civilian. “Did I ever mention anything about him? Can you describe him?”

Commander nd’Elogat shrugged. “Moderately taller than you, not significantly older, paler in complexion, though comparable in hair coloration. I recall no other distinctive features. I only glimpsed him briefly.”

Uhura traded a dissatisfied look with Spock. The commander’s description would fit a high percentage of adult human males. This was compounded when nd’Elogat added, “Indeed, I can’t be entirely sure he was human. Your physiognomy is so… generic as humanoids go. No offense.”

No one else they could reach from Uhura’s tenure on the Potemkin could add anything further, and that was her final posting before the Enterprise. “Whatever I was doing,” Uhura told Spock and Admiral Cartwright subsequently, “it apparently began by the time I boarded the Potemkin. If that’s true, then this might all fizzle out once the sequence reaches that point.”

“You still took a fair number of leaves in the interim,” Cartwright countered. “With these flare outbursts getting bigger and lasting longer, the odds of serious loss of life are getting greater. We can’t just sit back and wait for them to die out.”

“Nor can we conclusively state that your actions began at the time,” Spock said. “We can only say that is the earliest instance we have been able to track down through interviews with your Starfleet colleagues. There were occasions, during your starbase assignment and in between your early starship tours, when you spent significant amounts of time on Earth. Your activities could have begun there. Indeed, they could have been ongoing for a number of years earlier than we have been able to trace.”

Cartwright grimaced. “Which means that we could be heading for a series of repeated vacuum surges right here in the Sol system. This has to be stopped before that happens!”