Diane Duane

" Captain," the calm voice came back, " our new patrol-information dispatches just received from Star-fleet this past hour include news of two armed rebellions, a plague, and a mail strike; various natural disasters attributed to acts of Deity, and unnatural ones attributed to inflation, accident and the breakdown of diplomacy; seventeen mysterious disappearances of persons, places or things; both with and without associated distress calls; eight newly discovered species of humanity, three of which have declared their intention to annex Starfleet and the Federation, and one of which has announced that it will let us alone if we pay it tribute. And probably most serious of all, a tribble predator has gotten loose from the zoo in a major city on Arcturus VI, and for lack of its natural prey has started eating peoples' cats."

Jim paused. "Well, Mr. Spock," he said, very seriously, it's going to take us at least a week to get all that cleared up. I think we'd better get out there and get started, don't you?"