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Jim could be dealing with the latest intelligence on the Tholians. Or finishing personnel reports. Or catching up on any number of things that he sometimes feels like he never has the time to finish.

But the sun isn't quite so low in the sky. And the air isn't that cold. And the snows are melting. Some days just demand leaving any and all work behind in favor of saddling up.

So while you could find Jim inside later on, you could just as easily find him outside right now, taking Rachat for a ride.

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"Off the record, it's gotten harder over the years. Things in the fleet have changed." Even with a generation of officers who either idolized Kirk or who had him as an instructor. "It's a lot more like a business used to be."

"I can believe it." Guppy says. "You should see the amount of politics that goes on in hospital."

"Is there a chain of command there?" He would guess there is. There always is.

"Of course." Guppy says. "I mostly just try and get on with it, but a few of the higher up officials are an utter nuisance who have long since forgotton what it's like to be on the shop floor, as it were."

Skimming a stone. "We've had a dreadful man trying to cut our budget down. His latest plan was to try and dismiss my pregnant wife so the department wouldn't have to fork out for maternity leave and cover, which I pointed out was illegal. He's not going to succeed, but he was an idiot and a nuisance just to think he could try it."

"Congratulations," Jim says before considering the situation. "Is there anything you can do about this man? Or are you stuck unless and until you transfer someplace else?"

"I made a complaint and set my boss, Dr Wood, on him." Guppy says. "Who's at the same level. Apparently as soon as Dr Wood started digging around, he found the same doctor has been harrassing a lot of other people 'too expensive' for his budget plans. I got a text saying he's been suspended pending enquiry for a couple of unfair dismissals."

"Good." Sometimes there is justice in the world. "If it helps, in my day we don't think about resources the same way. Budgets are built on different principles." Ones that Jim has never been able to explain to anyone from a money-based economy.

"I suspect Dr Sharpe has been promised some sort of personal bonus if he can drastically cut spending in our department." Guppy says. "But he had a nerve boasting to me that I'd never prove what he was doing."

He shakes his head. "I don't know who he was trying to fool. If we'd sued for unfair dismissal, the Trust would have paid us off quickly to avoid publicity, whether or not we could have come up with proof, because enough people know me to know I wouldn't make something like that up."

"I think we would call him a martinet if he were in the fleet. Someone who justifies his every action with a rational argument but who is really just looking for an excuse to exercise power, put other people down, and make himself seem larger." Alas, such men often succeed despite themselves, and some become admirals.

Guppy nods.

"Well he took a dislike to me because my son pushed his daughter down some steps - they're at the same nursery. But considering he was only nine months old at the time, he really didn't have the capacity to do it with malice of forethought."

Shrug. "Alex has been much better behaved lately anyway, now that they got an assistant to follow him and one of the other kids around to intervene before situations come to violence."

"How old is he now?" Isn't it a bit odd for toddlers to act that way?

"Sixteen months. He tends to get into more scraps because he dislikes being touched, but all toddlers fight now and then. Children that age have difficulty grasping that other people have feelings and that they're not the centre of the universe."

"Ah. I haven't had any experience with toddlers." How far from Earth was he when David was that age? Not far enough to suit Carol, no doubt.

"Well Alex doesn't tend to follow the rules as toddlers go, but he's certainly not the only one that fights. It's a relief to have Lucy watching him, because now he only gets blamed for the incidents that are actually him. Some of the parents got very angry at one point because their children were being bitten, but it's not always him."

Jim has the feeling that someone is not quite right about Alex. But it's not his business.

"Well, I guess they outgrow it. If it helps, I hear that every species goes through this sort of process." Even Vulcans.

Jim would be right, but Guppy wants people to give Alex a chance so he's keeping his leaflets for close friends only.

"I'm confident we can teach him not to do it when he's old enough to understand." he says, quite truthfully. "I expect he and the new baby will still have scuffles from time to time though."

"How much space will there be between them? Do you know the gender yet?" In the future, as in Guppy's day, not everyone wants to be told.

"Hard to say, since Alex wasn't on time. But hopefully he'll be nearly two when the second baby is born."

He smiles slightly. "Yes we know the gender, but it's a secret. We found out so that we could tell Alex; he needs to be prepared for things as best as possible. Changes and surprises are difficult for him."

"I can imagine that would be the case for most children. I think I didn't entirely care for it, either." At least till he was seven or eight, and ready to explore with his father.

"People don't talk to their toddlers enough." Guppy says. "Alex may not understand everything we say to him by a long way, but he knows something is going to happen if we tell him, and that's half way to getting him to co-operate."

"It's not unlike making first contact. Just with an immature species instead of an advanced one." And also not unlike how some Vulcans used to talk to humans in the old days.

"You're saying toddlers are like aliens?"

Guppy laughs. "You should totally write a book on that."

Jim makes something of a face. "I think that in the right light, anyone can seem like an alien. As well as the opposite."

"Are the aliens you meet generally humanoid?"

"The majority, yes. Bipedal as well. There's been a lot of speculation about why that is. The number of totally non-humanoid species I have encountered is about thirty, and that includes energy beings."