Title: The Awakening Author: Istannor Series: TOS Part: 1/1 Rating: [PG13] to [NC17] Codes: K/S, Violence Summary: Not all presents are fun when unwrapped. Disclaimer: These are the characters of Paramount and Viacom, they own them, I only check 'em out from the library. I promise to bring 'em back. Thank-you to Milena for them editing. If there are no errors, thank them, not me. Feedback to Istannor @Aol.com The Awakening Spock sat at his computer console and worked diligently on the reports from Seraphe 6, the planet they were currently orbiting. The composition of the soil samples was most intriguing and seemed to indicate prior domestic agriculture. They had not found any evidence of previous habitation by an intelligent species to explain the fossilized remains of edible crops grouped together in planting patterns. The door to the cabin opened. A terrific smell preceded the Captain of the Enterprise, who walked in and unceremoniously plopped down into a chair. His feet sprawled out in front of him and his head fell back over the chair in an obvious state of fatigue. "Jim, you are exhausted and you smell. You need to destroy those clothes, shower, and sleep." "In that order?" "In that order." "Okay, give me a minute. I'm going. Do I smell that bad?" He mumbled. "Currently, you smell worse than...," "Okay, okay, I get the picture. I'm going." He promptly began to snore. Spock got up and began to pull Jim's boots off and then his socks. When he pulled at his pants, the human stirred briefly, mumbled, and immediately fell back asleep. Spock helped him to undress completely, then he got his T'hy'la awake enough to shower and fall into bed, still dripping wet. The Vulcan sighed in exasperation, dried off the sleeping human, covered him, and went back to the console. The planetside rotation was grueling for the entire crew. They had an extremely tight schedule to meet in order to ready Seraphe for the approaching colony ships. The terra- forming engineers had called for emergency Starfleet assistance after they had triple system failure in their energy conversion systems. The Enterprise had been sent to fix the problem and get the water, energy, and waste conduits in place before the giant colony ship arrived. Each day brought a new disaster. Jim had been helping with the waste conduits. The human drove himself to exhaustion every day to attempt to resolve all the problems before the colonists arrived. He had even helped with clearing and planting the land. Even now, 25 years later, the Iowa farmer boy was not too far under the surface. Spock smiled to himself and turned to watch his Bondmate sleep. All of Spock's fears and worries about how James Kirk would deal with being the Bondmate of a Vulcan male had disappeared over the last glorious year. Jim was all he had illogically dreamed of and wished for. He rose and lay down beside his T'hy'la. Slowly, he stroked the smooth face; it was so handsome. Asleep, it was without the lines of pain and worry that often settled over it. Jim's meld points drew Spock's hands. He felt a familiar tingle as he brushed against the sleeping consciousness of his beloved, and he entered Jim's mind, softly. The warmth and trill of joy the Vulcan always felt on contact with his Bondmate's thoughts rushed to fill him. He sensed a gentle welcome. Jim was so used to Spock's joining, he barely stirred. Mental arms wrapped the Vulcan in a close embrace and drew him down into sleep. James Kirk awoke to the sound of the COM demanding his immediate attention. He felt like he had slept mere minutes, but the display told him five hours had passed. He gingerly tried to disentangle himself from his sleeping Bondmate without awakening him. "There is no need to tiptoe; I am awake." The warm voice freed him from his stealth and he made a quick exit from the bed to hit the COM button. "Kirk, here." "Captain, I think you better come down here right away. We are getting some pretty strange readings." It was Scotty. "We started making for the main waste conduits and we hit bedrock. We were using the laser to drill and it stopped." "On what?" "Unknown, Sir. But, whatever would stop a Federation Engineering Corp. harmonic drilling laser has to have a density greater then any natural substance we have previously encountered. What the thing doesn't shatter with high frequency harmonics, it vaporizes with the laser, or at least it's supposed to do that." "Conjectures, Scotty?" "I don't have any. If you see Mr. Spock, Sir, tell him the readings are on his terminal." Kirk smiled at Scotty's diplomacy. "I'll tell him as soon as I see him. Have them call off the drilling and pull everyone back from the site. I'll be down there in 30 minutes with Mr. Spock. Kirk out." "Yes, Sir. Scott out." Kirk walked back over to his bed and slid next to his Bondmate, who watched him appreciatively. "Hey, you." "Good morning. I believe that constitutes an appropriate response." Spock's left eye twitched. As he watched, his Bondmate leaned over and settled on top of his body. "Uh huh, that would be one response. This would be another." He leaned over the Vulcan's neck and nipped at it eagerly while he rubbed his naked body against Spock. "We do not have time to indulge." "Nope, but if I get you started now, I won't have as far to go when I bring your long," he kissed Spock's left ear, "lanky," he kissed Spock's right ear, "green skinned," he kissed Spock's nose, "sexy," he kissed Spock's forehead, "handsome body, " he dove his tongue into Spock's mouth for a long passionate kiss. At the same time he thrust his pelvis into Spock's with a slow grind. He stopped as soon as he felt the Vulcan reach to grab him and continued his verbal planning, "back for me to play with." Jim sat up, twitched his eyebrows with a wicked smile, and jumped out of the bed to go to the refresher. Spock fell back onto the pillow and contemplated the rock hard erection his partner had left him with. An unmistakable smile flittered across his face, before he willed his erection away and got up to get dressed. "That was cruel, T'hy'la." Spock said as he passed Jim and took his own place under the showerhead. "Nope, if I wasn't planning on blowing the wax out of your ears, that would've been cruel. But, since I am, it wasn't." "Blow the wax out of my ears?" "Yup." "And when do you plan on doing this, my Captain? You are required on the planet surface, and by the time you finish down there, you barely have enough energy to undress. I doubt my ears will be cleaned anytime soon." "Don't be such a pessimist, Spock. I found the neatest little alcove down in the tunnels. When I saw it, I thought of you." Jim turned around and smiled lasciviously at his Bondmate. "I'm planning on ravishing you in the tunnel." "Now, I remind you of a conduit tunnel drilling site?" The Vulcan inquired in a tone of disbelief. "Yup." Jim's hair was finally combed and his teeth were cleaned to his satisfaction. "Long, dark, hot, and... tight." Jim laughed and walked out of the bathroom to get dressed. "I asked for that." Spock whispered to himself. He finished his ablutions and exited to find his Captain already on the terminal looking at the latest data from the surface. "We'll never be ready for the colonists at the rate we're going. Damn. What else can go wrong?" "Invariably, when we have asked that question on this planet, fate has conspired to answer the query for us. Perhaps that is a question that would be more suited to remain unvoiced in the future." "I love how you tell me to shut up. It is so elegant." Jim chuckled. "Come look at this. The drill stopped near those soil samples that are giving you a fit." "Really?" Jim immediately had his attention. "You are correct. Let me load this into my tricorder and take it with us to the surface." Jim waited for Spock to finish and they left to beam down to the planet, ten minutes early. When Jim and Spock reached the surface, they spotted Scotty immediately. He was arguing with Hancock, the planetary engineer in charge of the site development. The Captain and First Officer walked swiftly over to join them. "Scotty, Mr. Hancock, what do you have?" Kirk interrupted the argument. "Captain, I must object. We already have had too many delays. Stopping now makes absolutely no sense." "Mr. Hancock, how did you plan on continuing past the point where you and your laser have stopped? Aren't you even curious what could do that?" "No, I'm not curious. I want to finish this job and get the hell off this planet. It gives me the creeps. The laser wasn't on its highest setting. We can increase the beam by a magnitude of 10 and keep cutting." "Mr. Hancock, how would you dissipate the increased heat generated by that act?" Spock inquired. "I can drill some bore holes in the area to the surface and bleed off the heat that way." Kirk looked at Spock to see if the plan was feasible. The Vulcan nodded his assent. "Let us take a look at what you found first, Mr. Hancock. If it looks like nothing, we will go along with your plan." Mollified, the engineer agreed, uncrossed his arms and walked away. "Captain, I suggest we take a metallurgist and an archeologist down with us." Spock suggested quietly. Kirk turned to him and looked at him quizzically. The human's eyes went distant for a second. It showed Spock that he was integrating data and coming to a decision. "Add a security detail to that list, fully armed with water, visors, and ration packs, and have them bring the same for us." "Explain." "I can't; it's just a hunch." Kirk's eyes misted over briefly, and then he turned and pulled Scotty with him towards the opening to the tunnel. Spock watched his Bondmate's retreating back. He was hit by a momentary sense of foreboding. He knew it was coming from his Bondmate, and that made him doubly uncomfortable. He had learned to never discount Jim's 'hunches'. The personnel were assembled in 10 minutes. Kirk walked over to brief them. "We're going down into the number one tunnel. At the farthest end, the drilling laser stopped on something; we don't know what. You're going down to find out what. Look for any trace of previous habitation or abandoned technology. Look out for anything that doesn't look like a natural formation." "Spock and the science department have seen fossilized evidence of crops. That means civilization. We have not found any other evidence of prior habitation on this planet. This barrier may be that evidence. Some of you have made a lot of planetfalls; some of you have not. Warning, alien artifacts are dangerous until proven otherwise. If you find something look, shout, but don't touch." "Do you understand me?" A chorus of, 'aye, aye, Sir', greeted his question. "Good, let's go solve the puzzle then. Scotty, you know what to do." "What are your orders, Scotty?" Mr. Hancock asked while he watched them disappear into the mouth of the tunnel. "I rather not say, Hancock. You don't really want to know." They stood silently and waited. The team of 20 walked silently down the recently drilled passageway. Thin, luminescent tubules ran down the sides and gave it an eerie glow. It took them 20 minutes to reach the laser. It sat mutely, and waited for orders to continue. When they passed the laser, they had to use their own lights in the darkened tunnel. Spock flipped the safety, to make sure the drill couldn't go off and fry them all while they walked along its sighted path. Five minutes later they met the barrier. The wall over the tunnel in front of them had been vaporized free of rock, dirt, and debris. It bared a brilliant crystalline surface that sparkled and glowed in their artificial lights. Kirk waited patiently while the team inspected the surface of the surrounding area. Spock took innumerable readings with the tricorder and when he was finally satisfied, he closed the lid with a grunt. "Unknown substance, crystalline matrix, sophistication as far above us as you are above the Cro- Magnon, technologically speaking." "How far does it extend?" "I cannot find any end to it, in any vector, save one. Starting at this point. It ends 194.3 meters above our heads to the surface." Kirk whistled softly. "It is sufficiently dense to halt the laser even at the higher setting. Age undetermined. Mr. Lilly, your report." Lt. Lilly was the archeologist. "Sir, the surrounding soil and rock samples show this has been embedded here for 2,362, 000 years, approximately." Kirk smiled at the final word. Lily was noted for her drive for exactitude. "In actuality, this ground grew up, so to speak, around this artifact. It may have been here even longer. Also, in the surrounding sediment, I am finding traces of protein. I do not know what kind." Kirk and Spock looked at each other. "Familiar, or unfamiliar sequences?" Spock asked. "Totally unknown but definitely fossilized protein." Kirk opened his communicator. "Scotty?" "Yes, Sir." "Have the teams break off for the day. We're shutting down operations for now. We found something." He could hear angry shouting from Hancock in the background. "Tell Uhura to get me a patch through to Starfleet, Admiral of the day for colonization, and put it through to me when she's got it. Kirk out." "Okay, Captain. Scott out." "Let's get to work. I want to know what this is; how far it goes; is it the only one, and whether or not they left us any surprises. I want to know these things by yesterday. Get moving." They hurried off to comply. Spock walked over to stand next to his Bondmate. He hesitated before he interrupted his Captain's contemplation. "What are you going to do with the colony ship, Jim? It is only a week away." "I'm going to turn it around and send it away." "That move will not engender support from the transport Co., the engineering firm, the World Finder Corps, and probably Starfleet." James Kirk looked at his Bondmate with a frown. "Ask me if I give a damn. I am not letting defenseless sheep graze on the surface, when there may be a big bad wolf all around them." "Why do you think this is a wolf, as you phrase it?" "I don't know what it is and mysteries give me a stomach ache. I have a rocking one right now." He turned to look into the darkness of the tunnel. "Anyway, you know me and colony worlds. It has to be right or I worry. Not again, ever." Spock heard the word Tarsus flicker through his Bondmate's mind. He felt Jim clamp down on it ruthlessly before he turned back to look at his first Officer. Jim had a wide smile on his face; his mood was mercurial as ever. "Sorry about your ears." Spock mouth twitched slightly as he tried to hold back the answering smile. "You are incorrigible." Jim's answer was an even bigger smile. "I'm going back to the surface to talk with Hancock. Hopefully, he won't phaser me as soon as I hit the open air. Maybe we can use his crew to help us get the facts we need. If this thing turns out to be nothing, the faster we know, the better for everyone." "Agreed." "See you, First officer." "Indeed, Captain. That is my desire also." Spock watched him re-trace their steps into the darkness. With a sigh, he turned around to go to work. He caught himself pulling on his ear. Kirk sat in front of viewscreen. Komack and Nogura were in front of him on either side of a split screen. Nogura was on Earth, but Komack was actually on an inspection tour in the quadrant. He was much too close for Kirk's comfort. "Captain Kirk, I don't see sufficient evidence for you to turn back the colony ship. How the hell do I record your reasons as, "a hunch"? These folks have already paid millions of credits for a home and we have 5,672 people on their way to Seraph to start a colony. I'll be damned if I turn them away on a whim." Komack was almost hollering. Admiral Nogura intervened to calm his colleagues down. "Richard, we have trusted a hell of a lot to Kirk's hunches in the past and it has saved our behinds. Don't discount them now just because it makes you uncomfortable." "Sirs, all I am requesting is a delay so we may investigate what is under the surface of the planet. We're just now getting readings back and the thing is enormous. The colonists have ample supplies to wait near a Starbase. They are in no danger of starving or dying. I cannot say the same for them here." "Kirk, every damn colony world is not Tarsus. Don't you think you're over-reacting a bit?" Komack's voice did little to hide his disgust. Kirk took a deep breath. Losing his temper wouldn't give him a thing. He knew Komack would love to see him explode, but too much was at stake to indulge. "I appreciate your insight and concerns, Admiral. Perhaps your presence is needed for a decision of this magnitude. I wouldn't want you to have to trust my judgment alone. Since you're already in the quadrant, you can be here in 7.34 days. We welcome your input." Kirk held back his smile. Komack was cornered and he could see the fact dawning on the man. "Richard, Kirk has a point," Nogura responded first. Kirk could see Nogura lips twitch as he fought a smile. "I will expect you to rendezvous with the Enterprise in 7.5 days. Report to me within 24 hours after arrival. Is there anything else, Gentlemen?" Komack was speechless. Kirk said no. "Very well, I will be expecting your report. Nogura out." Kirk turned the vid off with a sense of satisfaction. He had seven days in which to solve his little mystery. Hopefully, they would be finished before Komack arrived. Komack tended to be less than helpful, especially when it came to the command team of the Enterprise. Spock transferred the new data into his COM and looked over it thoughtfully. He had beamed members of the science team around the globe to take readings. The readings were the same everywhere they went. The structure formed the core of the planet and began at a depth varying from a hundred meters to a thousand meters beneath the planetary crust. He was not surprised the initial team had missed it. The surface defied routine scanning. Until they took specific readings from the waste conduit tunnel, the Enterprise team had missed it also. Now that they knew what to look for, the findings were even more mystifying. They had been unable to put the slightest dent into the substance that comprised its outer shell. They were unable to ascertain if the interior was solid or hollow. They had no idea what it was made of and they had no idea how old it was. The only thing they could tell for sure, was that the planet had been formed to surround it, and it had not fallen to ground or been built inside the world. Spock sighed, a very un-Vulcan trait he had picked up from his Bondmate. He was not making the inroads he had anticipated, and this meant his ears were still clogged. Spock smiled and sent a gentle ripple to his Bondmate, who he felt respond from orbit. Their link was unbelievably strong, even stronger than the norm for full Vulcans. The Vulcan healers explained that their open emotional attachment heightened its intensity. Full Vulcans resisted indulging in raw emotional relationships. They both had long ago admitted to loving each other, before they ever bonded. Then they had learned to have no secrets from each other. Once they had reached that point, the link had flared open like a highway. It had taken a great deal of effort for them to retain their separate identities. The drive to be together had been so intense that McCoy had initially feared for their sanity, put them in isolation, and called for a healer. They had survived and what they had now was their own private sanctuary, where no pain, no censure, and no rejection ever intruded. Spock bent down to resume his task. The faster he finished, the sooner he would be able to return home, to the ship, and to his mate. Three days later, Hancock, his staff and the Enterprise command team met on the ship to review what they had learned so far. "Gentlemen, we have finished surveying the entire planet from orbit and from the surface. The artifact forms the center of the planet. To the best of our abilities, we have learned that the planet is older than the sun it orbits by one million years." A shocked sound came from Hancock's group. The Enterprise staff already knew this. Spock continued. "We are unable to get even the slightest sliver of material to break off from the artifact. We still cannot tell you what it is composed of or what is in its interior. In summary, on the screen in front of you is all we have been able to ascertain. The planet has been far more informative. Lt. Lily, if you would proceed." She stood. She was a short, dark, brown-skinned, earth- normal human with curly brown hair, who tended a little to the plump side. "Gentleman, the planet had inhabitants until 2, 256,000 years ago, with a margin of error of 100,000 years, either way. They had a highly developed agricultural society, but left no true artifacts. We have no fossilized skeletons to date, but we have found something that I think is absolutely wonderful." She motioned and a hologram sprung up in the middle of the room. "Here is our Oldavai gorge." A valley, riddled with harsh terrain, giant boulders and deeply carved riverbeds, came into view. The cliffs were steep, completely uneven and covered by vegetation that flowed over them, and surrounded them. The vid passed along the cliffs and openings could be seen that were cut into the cliff walls. "Magnification 100 percent at 20 degrees to the right." The camera closed in on one of the openings. "Gentleman," she said with obvious glee, "you are about to see something spectacular." The vid inched into the cave opening, over fallen rocks and ancient debris. Finally, it exited into a huge cavern inside of the mountain. Lights begin to brighten the area until the entire cavern was illuminated. The walls were completely covered with murals. Not primitive drawings, but murals detailed and executed by the hands of an artist. The colors looked like someone had just painted them. They pulled with a life all of their own, in hues and shades that made human eyes more than a little uncomfortable. "Oh, my lord," McCoy gasped. "Precisely, Dr. McCoy," Lily responded. "This is the find of a lifetime. I have rotating teams down there, non-stop, recording every single solitary drawing they can find. But that is not all, Gentlemen. We were able to date their drawings." She paused for effect. "They are 2,356,752 years old, with a confidence of three percent. The age of the universe is estimated to be nine billion years old. We have dated core samples of the rock. Our earlier estimates were very wrong. The planet is 10 billion years old." The room was silent while everyone sorted out the data. "This meant this planet had a civilization before the earliest life crawled out of the seas on Vulcan or Earth." She was not finished. "Now, I want you to look at the content of the drawings." The pictures started to pan in front of them. The style was unusual, the combinations were disquieting, but the content was unmistakable. It showed non-humanoid creatures with four mobile limbs and six supporting limbs, living and working on the surface of the world. Most of things showed involved agriculture, a few seemed to show creatures in the midst of incomprehensible rituals. Spock interrupted their perusal. "You will note that there is a structure that is repeated throughout the drawings. It appears to be an opening out of which the creatures enter and exit. Logic dictates that this is why we have found evidence of agricultural development only on the surface. These beings built no surface dwellings. They lived inside the structure we have uncovered." Kirk turned to Spock. "Do we know if they are still in there, and alive?" "We cannot answer that question. There is insufficient data available at this time. We know that surface agriculture stopped 1,256,000 years ago. That is all we are able to discern at this time. The alien structure resists all efforts to scan its interior, or get energy readings from it." Sulu spoke up. "Are we able to locate any openings in the surface of the structure?" Spock responded. "No, the surface is unbroken. There's no evidence of doors, or even if there were openings at any time." "Maybe yes, maybe no," Kirk mused out loud. Spock turned immediately to his Captain. He could sense Jim's mental leaps vaguely through the bond. He waited for Jim to finish his thoughts. "Have we considered the fact they may have left us a map?" Kirk asked softly. Spock immediately made the connection. He turned to watch Lt. Lily jump up in excitement when she made the leap. "Yes, yes, oh my gosh. Permission to be excused, Sir." Kirk gave it and she ran through the door without a backward glance. "Alright, Jim, give." McCoy drawled impatiently. "Yes, yes, what?" He mimicked Lt. Lily. Spock answered. "The pictures were left intentionally, Doctor. They may be a guide to decoding the structure. The pictures are a map." "Well, I'll be damned," McCoy whispered. "They knew we were coming?" "If not us, then someone, Doctor. I suspect we were just the first that came and stayed long enough to solve the mystery." Kirk stood up. "Gentleman, you have a lot to do before Admiral Komack gets here. I suggest you get to it." "Captain Kirk," Hancock jumped up, "does this mean we're still going to be prevented from completing our work?" "How about we describe it as a change in job description? You are needed to dig out an access to the structure at whatever point my science team designates. Until they have figured that out, you get to take a little rest and relaxation, otherwise known as R and R." "Captain, you're overstepping your authority," Hancock shouted. "Hardly, Mr. Hancock, since I have declared this site under Starfleet authority secondary to the importance of this recent discovery. I hope that makes you feel better. Now, I have all the authority I need, up to and including having you incarcerated if you don't obey my orders. See, I haven't begun to overstep anything," Kirk gave a slight smile. "Look Hancock, I understand your issues, but you're getting paid, and if it exceeds the contracted time for your crew secondary to Starfleet interference, you get Starfleet rate, not devastating for sitting on your behind for a few days." A calculated look lit Hancock's face as he added up how much more credits that might add to his coffers. Then a smile lit his face. Hancock sat back and relaxed. "We're at your disposal, Boss. We'll dig when you say dig and rest when you say rest, all at fleet rates of course." "Of course," Kirk smiled with his face only. "So," he turned to rest of the team, "shall we get to business? I want this done by the time Komack gets here. Dismissed." Spock waited as everyone filtered out. McCoy turned and saw that neither Spock nor Jim were leaving, and came back to sit on the table next to Jim. "Okay, shoot. I can see from the conspiratorial looks that you two are giving each other, that something is less than kosher. What gives?" Kirk and Spock exchanged silent looks, the kind that meant they were in mental communion. Kirk nodded and turned to McCoy. "Why would they leave a map, Bones?" McCoy jerked back at the question. He never thought about it. "How the hell do I know? I'm a doctor, not a mind reader. Wait." He thought furiously. "Either they wanted us to find them or they left something for us. Maybe, that was their way of saying we were here, don't forget us. I don't know, why do you think they left it?" Spock answered, "Perhaps they meant for their finders to perform a service for them." "What kind of service can you do for someone 2 million years after the damn fact?" "That, Bones, is the million credit question, and I for one don't have the slightest idea what the answer is. I'll give you ten to one odds we'll find out soon." "I hate betting with you; you win too much." McCoy shook his fist at the air. "Shit, I should've known even digging a damn ditch gets complicated with this ship around." James Kirk chuckled. "I love your enthusiasm. Come on, Bones," Kirk stood and gathered the older man into a friendly arm. "Look at the bright side, you're hardly ever bored." "I think the doctor would be more sanguine about this if he thought these beings produced liquor and had it in storage for all these years." McCoy's eyes lit up. "I wonder how million year old bourbon would taste." Spock rolled his eyes upward in disbelief. "This could turn out okay after all, Spocko. I just needed to consider all the angles." Spock snorted in disgust and left to begin his labors. "What did I say?" McCoy asked mischievously to the sound of Kirk's unrestrained laughter. Later that night, the Captain poured over the reports that covered his desk. He heard the door open and continued to read. He only looked up when he knew Spock stood right in front, then he gave a smile designed to melt the Vulcan's knees. It had no effect. His T'hy'la was covered from elegant ear tip to his regulation boots in mud. Kirk snorted in amusement. "You... ah... are pretty dirty. Suddenly pick up a mud fetish?" Kirk grabbed his mouth to attempt to stifle the laughter that threatened to erupt at any moment. His mate was not amused. "We followed the "map". We managed to locate caverns that go on for kilometers. The last one we explored had a slippery incline that ended in a pool of mud estimated to be 20 meters deep." Jim became instantly alert. "Anybody get hurt? Why didn't I feel it in the Bond?" "I never felt endangered, only irritated. No-one was harmed, however all of our dignities were bruised. You currently have five miners covered in mud, cursing in various dialects on the planet surface, and 4 crew members changing uniforms." "You went through decontamination before you came aboard, of course." "Of course," Spock looked up in umbrage. "I am covered by completely sterile dust." "Sorry, Spock," Kirk got up. "You go on to the shower. I'll go get us some food. You'll feel better after you are clean and have something to eat." Kirk heard a grumbling reply about the impossibility of ever attaining cleanliness again; the Vulcan stalked away into the fresher. He swallowed his laughter and left to get Spock's favorites. When he returned to their shared cabin, Plomeek soup and fried squash with onion loaf in hand, Spock was sound asleep on their bed. Kirk tiptoed over to cover the sleeping Vulcan and returned to his reports. Finally, hours later he undressed and joined his mate in bed. He pulled the super warm body close, and went peacefully to sleep. The COM woke them again. "Captain Kirk?" Lt. Lilly's voice called him. He rolled over and hit the COM quickly, voice only. "Kirk, here." "I think we found the entrance." "Have you done anything yet?" "No, Sir. As soon as the opening was identified, we pulled everyone back, per your instructions." "Excellent, Lieutenant. I'll be down there in fifteen minutes. I'll notify Mr. Spock also, no need to call him. Kirk out." "Jim." The human rolled over to see an awake set of brown eyes looking at him attentively. "I missed the first part of the conversation." Jim kissed him soundly on his nose. "Get dressed. They found the doorway." Spock was up and through the door to the fresher before Jim cleared the bedroom. Vulcan speed was an amazing thing to watch. Spock usually didn't use full Vulcan speed in front of the crew; it made too many of them uncomfortable. He knew Jim didn't care, in fact Jim rejoiced in his differences, and Spock rejoiced in Jim. They made it to the surface in 14 minutes. Lilly was waiting for them with poorly bridled impatience. Scotty gave his command team a long suffering look and led them into the new tunnel they had been digging for the past 24 hours nonstop. To Scotty, engineering was engineering, all of that belonged to his department. If he had to, he could supervise tunnel digging as well as engine building. He actually liked it as a change of pace, but it couldn't hold a candle to working on his lady's engines. The tunnel stretched out in front of them, lit by glowing tubes stretched along its length. The light reflected off the cracks and peaks of stone, casting shadows and secrets everywhere. They walked in silence. The only sound was their footsteps, the hum of machines, and the occasional drip of groundwater from the stones. They finally reached the end of the tunnel where the team had cleared away 50 meters of space around the surface of the mystery sphere. The surface soaked up the light, instead of reflecting it, and made the wall look like a hole in the fabric of the earth. Spock crossed immediately to it and ran his hands over the surface. Then he stepped back to read his Tricorder. The door was obvious. It was surrounded by symbols and pictures and outlined in gray blue silver that throbbed in time to some unknown scheme. "Anything, Spock?" Jim came to stand beside him. "The readings are unchanged. There's nothing other than the markings you see to differentiate this location from any other. We have previously drilled seven other approaches." He leaned slightly forward. His excitement at discovery was palpable, even without the bond. "You're having fun with this," Jim said quietly enough that only Vulcan ears would catch it." Spock turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "I am simply attempting to solve a 10 million year old mystery, and we are the first to encounter it in recorded history. What could possibly be fun about that?" Spock's face twitched slightly in suppressed amusement. "I'm sorry, my mistake. Foolish of me." "Indeed." Spock turned back to continue his perusal of the surface. Lt. Lilly came to stand beside her Captain. "The rock around this opening is the age we would've predicted from earlier samples. We're looking at a door over 9 billion years old." She shivered slightly. Kirk turned to watch her face, which was transformed by satisfaction and joy. This was the type of thing every archeologist dreamed of, to discover an ancient civilization. If their dating was right, this would qualify as the most ancient and fantastic find yet. Kirk was happy for her. In fact he was just happy. This find would give people something to do and investigate for centuries. A quiet sense of pride flowed through him at the fact that he had a role in it. He moved over to sit against the wall and let his people work. Hancock ambled over, after an hour or so and slid down in frustration next to him. "Nothing. Whatever the hell that stuff is, nothing we have put a dent in it. Why don't we just drill around it, let the settlers come and build some huge University and tourist trap over the dig. They'll love it. They can have guaranteed income from the tourist trade, before they even move in their furniture." Kirk looked at the graying man in amusement. "Suppose someone is still in there and they object to you running over their heads. Or," Kirk warmed up to the subject, "suppose it's one giant bomb, waiting to go off, or what if..." Hancock held up his hands in surrender. "Alright for Cripes sake. I get the picture. How long are we going to do this? How long will we be here?" "Until we know what's inside, and I'm certain the colonists will be safe." Kirk's answer was swift and certain. Hancock turned away to watch the proceedings and glare at the artificial lights which streamed towards the doorway and vanished into its surface. Hours later, and not one iota of positive information gained, Kirk shut down the site for the night and returned to the ship with his team. McCoy met them in the transporter room and took them to officers' country for dinner. He was eager for all the news. When they got settled in their customary seats, Spock started on his aborted menu of the night before. Kirk and McCoy ate garbage pizza with obvious relish and chased it down with a rootbeer each. Finally, hungers fed, McCoy opened the discussion with, "Well, what the hell is it?" Kirk shrugged and deferred to his Science Officer. "I have nothing but a hypothesis, Doctor." "Okay, what do you think it is, Spock?" "A ship," Spock replied. McCoy's eyes opened in surprise and Kirk merely nodded his agreement. Kirk smiled and drank the last of his beer. "The oldest space ship known to exist, from the oldest civilization ever found." "What makes you think it is a ship, Spock, and why are you acting like this is no big deal, Captain space jockey?" McCoy rumbled sarcastically. Spock answered first. "It predates the planet and quite probably the sun around which it orbits. It housed the beings on the drawings and is still intact millions of years after we can tell it was last in active use. Logically, it can be nothing else. It is an alien artifact that we have no idea how old it may be, we're only able to date the planet and the sun. I see no other logical answer." McCoy contemplated his answer in silence, then turned his full attention on Kirk. "You didn't answer me." "Seemed like all it could be, Bones. But I may have been picking up on Spock's thoughts, so I just overheard his answer." Kirk smiled an apology. "What does your gut tell you, Jim?" McCoy could see something worrying Kirk, beneath the surface. The smoke was coming off of his brain, and that usually meant work for his department, work he preferred to do without. Kirk shrugged and looked inward. Spock and McCoy both waited patiently for him to answer. His instincts had never failed them yet. He frowned and then turned his face towards the table, and clinched his hands in front of him, then slowly released them. "My gut tells me to run, now, as fast and as far away as I can get." He chuckled without humor and then shook himself again before he looked at them. McCoy felt cold. He had never heard Jim say anything like that before. His Captain and best friend was afraid and that scared him more than any damn ball buried under the ground. "Maybe we should clear out now then," McCoy suggested hopefully. "What," Kirk laughed and stood up, "and miss the party? Komack will be here in 2 days. I'll let him decide this one. I'm going back to my cabin to change and go swimming. Either one of you want to join me?" They both deferred and Kirk left them to make good his plan. "I don't like this, Spock. He's scared, even though the universe will have to end before he admits it. You know what he saw down there to set his nerves on end?" "I have no idea, Leonard." Spock answered truthfully. "I will endeavor to discover the source of his discomfort. However, you know as well as I, sometimes he can not articulate his whys. I would prefer that this mission be without serious or deadly repercussions. It would be a pleasant distraction for us all." Spock cleared the table. The fact that Jim didn't clear his plate was an open indication of his distraction. "I will let you know what I discover if anything, Leonard." McCoy waved at the Vulcan vaguely then retreated into his thoughts. He thought back to the times he had seen Jim afraid. Those times were always centered on the well being of another. If he, Spock, or a crewmember were injured, Jim would allow his fear to show. McCoy had never seen him show fear doing a challenge, or an attack. This reaction made the doctor's stomach groan and grumble. Suddenly, he wanted to leave very badly. Unfortunately, that was not an option. Kirk swam his 40th lap, hit the wall, and flipped. He thought 80 laps might be enough to calm his nerves for the night. The planet, the artifact, Komack's scheduled arrival, the paintings, all of it gave him the willies. Normally, fear took him into an attack mode, but there was nothing to direct that attack mode towards, so all his trepidation and anxiety were unable to focus on one object. On the 60th lap he sensed Spock enter into the pool and begin to pace him for the remaining laps. When he hit 80, he stopped and turned to see his T'hy'la staring at him. "You have frightened Dr. McCoy." Spock came to stand beside him while he waited for Jim's breath to slow. "Can you identify the source of your discomfort?" "You mean other than a ten billion year old ball buried in a planet?" He smiled sarcastically. "Jim, you are purposefully being vague. That is unlike you. Is this a specific or general unease?" Kirk ran his hands through his wet hair and turned to float with his head resting against the side of the pool. "I wish I could tell you. It's like someone is walking on my grave," he turned in chagrin towards Spock. "You're familiar with the term?" "Yes." "I know this place isn't safe. I just can't tell you why. I'm sorry." "There is no need to apologize, Jim." He reached up to touch Jim's face gently. "Of course, we will heed your intuition. It has not failed us to date." Jim smiled briefly and shook his head in confusion. "I don't know what's the matter with me. I feel like I'm ready to burst." "Come, we will return to the cabin. You will take a hot shower, and I will give you a massage." "In that order?" Jim grinned. "In that order." Spock replied and climbed out of pool. He reached down and lifted his Captain out with one hand. "Yes, sir, Mr. First Officer, Sir." Jim saluted. "An eminently logical response, Captain." Spock and Jim walked to their shared cabin together, and Jim plopped down on the bed in exhaustion. "Pull your clothes off, so that I may access your back." Spock moved towards the bed with the oil he favored for a therapeutic massage. "You spoil me, you know." "It is mutual. Relax and allow me to give you relief from your tension." "You know what you can do to give me some relief." Spock began to knead his muscles. Jim's stress made them feel like small balls of tensile steel. "You are under stress and you are fatigued. I do not wish to add to that." "You never add to my stress." The Vulcan's hands began wide soothing circles that started at his shoulders and worked down towards his buttocks. Spock leaned down and pushed on one particularly recalcitrant knot. "If you rest, I will endeavor to relieve your other needs, later." "Meanie," a sleepy voice whispered. "I have been called worse." He continued his slow massage until he heard the gentle breathing that signified sleep. He worked the muscles some more until he was satisfied, bent down and laid a gentle kiss on the smooth back, and went to work on the computer. One hour later, Spock left a sleeping James Kirk in his cabin and made his way back down to the surface. He had remodulated his Tricorder yet again to attempt to get readings from the interior of the artifact. Perhaps he could discern a code or pattern to the design around the opening. He beamed down to find the mining team drilling diligently around the opening to clear out the cavernous space leading to the entry. Hancock was shouting orders at his crew, while the team of archeologists was hard at work examining the sphere's surface. "Mr. Spock," Lt. Lily approached quickly across the opening. "We've found some indentations in the surface." Excitement was clearly etched over her features. "They form a pattern; I'm sure of it." She stood expectantly until Spock realized she was waiting for a response from him. "Would you like me to review your findings now, Lieutenant?" He knew the offer was expected, though he honestly was looking forward to pursuing his own investigations; they could wait. "If you would, Sir." She turned hurriedly and walked ahead of him towards the farthest part of the exposed artifact. She pointed at a series of indentations that were different depths, sizes, and angles along the surface. Spock stared at the surface in total concentration, and attempted to discern a pattern or a code nine billion years old. He sensed no clear trend. A small thrill of appreciation coursed through his mind while he savored the challenge of solving a scientific mystery. He could not conceive of a more weighty and intriguing mystery than this. A small tingle of satisfaction was all he allowed himself before he returned to the wall. His reverie was interrupted by the sound of angry cursing from behind. He sighed and turned to mediate the dispute. "Goddammit, Scotty, there's no reason why we can't do it that way. It will save us three days of boring." Hancock shouted with his hands on his hips in defiance. The engineer's face was ruddy with anger. "I'm tired of all these damn regulations. I've been digging tunnels and excavating for twenty damn years. I know what I'm doing." "Hancock are you daft or just plain deaf? I told you, the big question is not the damn ground or rock, it's the resonance on the artifact. How stupid can you be?" Scotty leaned into Hancock's face angrily. "Mr. Scott," Spock quietly placed himself between the two men, "perhaps you should explain the difficulty you two gentlemen are experiencing." Scotty grunted in exasperation and turned to face Spock. He visibly took his anger under control. "Mr. Hancock," he emphasized the Mister sarcastically, "wants to increase the frequency modulation of the drills." Hancock moved to interrupt and Spock held up his hand and stopped him. "It would clear the stone faster, but the harmonics would be transmitted too easily through the stone to the artifact. We have no idea what that will do, Mr. Spock. I want him to tone down the harmonics, which means slower digging but safer digging." "Show me your calculations, Mr. Scott." Spock waited calmly for Scotty's figures and reviewed them in detail. Finally, he turned to them both, "I concur, Mr. Scott. You will do as we ask, Mr. Hancock." Spock turned away and unfortunately made the assumption that his orders would be followed. "Shit," Hancock exploded. "I'm fucking tired of you Starfleet assholes." He turned to the crew. "Fire it up, Springer." Before Spock could utter a word to halt it, Hancock's crew chief pushed the control and the drill erupted. It shattered and evaporated the rock in its direct path and bore relentlessly towards the artifact. Spock and Scott hollered at the crew chief to shut off the drill, but the sound and the man's disinclination to hear them, made their shouts go unheard. It took 20 seconds to reach the surface of the artifact. It took nanoseconds for the surface to glow ten times more brightly then the artificial light of the tunnel. By the time Spock had reached the drill controls and shut the machine off himself, he, along with every single member of the digging and archeological team, turned as one to stare at the now pulsating surface of the artifact. Spock flipped open his communicator quickly. "Spock to Enterprise." There was no response. "Evacuate immediately. All personnel evacuate to the surface." Instantaneously all the powered lights dimmed. The Starfleet men and women, used to quickly responding to orders, had already started down the tunnel. The darkness accelerated their movement. They snapped their night vision visors into place, still mandatory since Kirk's first trip down, and began to run. Hancock stood and stared dumbly at the glowing wall across the cavern from his laser drill. Fear anchored him to the ground beneath him. He muttered again and again to himself, "Oh God, oh God, oh God." Spock pulled the crew chief from where he stood, and ran towards Hancock and the tunnel. Scotty had given up on shouting at the engineer and finally shoved him away from the artifact and towards the beckoning escape route. Then, it went completely dark. Spock ran. He drove the engineer ruthlessly in front of him. The man did not have on a night visor and he was reluctant to run into what he couldn't see. Hancock had refused to equip his team with the same things that the Enterprise crew carried at all times. Now the terrified man was in a mad rush through a dark tunnel hundreds of meters under the ground. A low hum began to build behind them. The air throbbed. The harmonics became painful to Spock's Vulcan ears. The rock around them began to vibrate, at first slowly, and then it sped up. It became difficult to maintain their footing. Still, they ran. Suddenly, the tunnel became completely silent except for the sound of their own heavy breathing and the panicked shouts of the engineers. Spock continually retried the communicator, to no avail. From behind them, the sound of clicking approached rapidly. Spock looked back briefly and could see deeper shadows rapidly approaching them even though they ran as fast as they could. The dark was so intense that even with the night visors he was unable to see anything other than deeper shadows moving towards him. Something struck him from behind and a heavy weight pressed him down towards the ground. He used his entire Vulcan strength to throw it off of him, and began to run again. He pulled his phaser and turned and fired. The phaser had no effect. He increased the intensity of the phaser setting. He fired and fired again, relentleesly and with pinpoint acuracy at the shadows that pursued him. The shadows paused... briefly, then ran towards him again. The crew in front of him was unable to fire out of fear of hitting him. He was knocked to the ground by several forms that rushed past him and then heard terrified screams of agony, but could do nothing. Something hit him again, this time the weight was enormous. There was nothing to do. He felt something pierce the center of his chest, and an intense burning sensation flowed through his body. It felt as if he was melting from the inside out. As blackness reached for his mind, he screamed and raged at the injustice. He did not want to leave Jim. The link flared into effulgence and then was snuffed out. "Spock," Kirk screamed and bolted straight up in the bed. He hit the COM. "Locate Mr. Spock." He was up and dressed before the response came back through the end. "Mr. Spock beamed down to the dig, Captain. He is not responding to our pages." "Scan the surface. Security team armed with full armor to the transporter room. Dr. McCoy to the transporter room with full medical team." He was running down the corridor 3 minutes after he awakened with his T'hy'la's scream of utter anguish in his mind. When he arrived at the transporter room, Giotto was there with 20 redshirts in full battle armor. Giotto silently handed Kirk his and waited for his briefing. "We've lost contact with Mr. Spock and the entire excavation site. I have reason to believe they are in danger. Do whatever you have to do to bring everyone back to this ship." Giotto looked at Kirk calmly. There was no doubt in his mind that something had happened to Spock to alert the Captain. Security had been discreetly informed of their Captain and First Officer's unique ability to communicate over long distances. It was a fact given to each new redshirt as they boarded the ship. It had been true since the first five-year mission and was doubly true now. He watched Kirk walk over to the wall COM and brief the bridge while they waited for the medical team to join them. It always took them longer to arrive, just like it took longer to heal than it did to kill, or to die. Giotto had served seven years with Kirk. He had watched as Kirk and Spock grew and changed to something mystical, and indomitable. Through it all, he'd never seen the Captain lose his connection with his crew, or his own humanity. The Klingon phrase echoed in his mind. Today is a good day to die. He was willing to die for his Captain, his First Officer, and his ship. McCoy burst in. "What the hell is wrong, Jim? It's 0200 in the morning. Why do you need a medical team?" "First squad, begin beam down, standard deployment." Kirk watched while Giotto led the team to the surface. He waited for them to signal their arrival. The air was heavy with tension and an emotion McCoy couldn't pinpoint at first, and then it hit him. It was fear; James T. Kirk was afraid. Kirk finally recognized McCoy's earlier question and turned towards him. His eyes, always the door to his thoughts, were cold. They were the eyes of death. "Spock and the team are in trouble. We can't raise anyone from the site. The sensor can't pick up anything. I mean to find them, Bones. Then, we're getting the hell out of here and I'm quarantining the whole sector. "Is he alive, Jim?" McCoy knew Jim was using the link, searching along it even while they were speaking. "Yes, but he's hurt and he's... afraid." Kirk closed his eyes tightly and took two slow calming breaths. The COM barked. "Captain, we have deployed. There is no one visible, no life signs, and no signs of struggle. Should we proceed down the tunnel, or wait for you?" "Take sensor readings on the artifact. Tell me if there is any change." Kirk waited. "Affirmative, Sir. We're now getting a low-level harmonic distortion on a sub-audible wavelength. We had no similar readings from before." "Wait there, Mr. Giotto." He flicked open a channel to Uhura. "Uhura, what do you have that would allow us to communicate through harmonic disruptions?" "A plain Laser," her answer was immediate. "Fusion generated, it shouldn't be affected by any harmonics, but it requires relay stations in line of sight." "Rig it up through the tunnels to the dig and have someone bring it to the surface yesterday. Kirk, out." He turned to the second squad. "Let's go. McCoy, you wait until we have the communications rigged, then we'll bring you down." "Jim, they may need us now. Let me go with you," McCoy inched towards the transporter pad. "No," Kirk's face was cold. "I will not risk you, or anyone else down there unnecessarily. We will secure the site first." "Jim, suppose they're dying? Suppose Spock and Scotty are dying?" The last trump card was thrown painfully on the table. The question made Kirk pause briefly as he climbed the steps of the transporter pad. "Then, we will be too late, Doctor, in more ways then you can possibly understand." He turned around on his pad and gave the order to beam down. Momentarily, his eyes locked with McCoy's and the doctor looked away, unable to bear it. The night was crystal clear and cool. They moved silently through the camp, on hand signals only. There was no one, and thankfully, no bodies. They moved towards the dig entrance and took up positions. Giotto sent five men ahead, who ran like ghosts into the pitch-black maw that gaped in front of them. Interminable seconds later, they came to the entrance and signaled all clear. Kirk's communicator piped. "Sir, we're ready to transport down the equipment. I'm sending two communications specialists with it to set up and operate. It's pretty unwieldy." They waited for the equipment to be set up. Its final link would be audio, laser, and subspace to the Enterprise, which would remain in Geo stationary orbit above the sight. Uhura had given it three backup power supplies. Giotto watched as Kirk sat with his eyes glued to the cavern entrance. He seemed to be barely breathing, barely conscious of his surroundings. It was a mistake to think that, Giotto knew. They waited. When it was completed, Kirk had McCoy and his squad beamed down. "You will follow up in the rear, Bones. We will bring you up if we find anybody still alive." He stared into McCoy's face and dared him to fight his next orders. "If I, or anyone in security tell you to leave, you are to drop every damn thing you have to run for the surface. Don't look back, and don't come to look for us. Beam back up to the ship. Sulu has orders to clear out, and you won't fight him on this. Do you understand me?" McCoy nodded slightly and tried to release the fear gripping his lungs. He let out slow breaths. "I'll do it, Jim. I promise." Kirk grunted once, and turned to lead the way into the tunnel. They traveled in silence, surrounded by darkness and millennia old rock. Their visors read the dark and gave them sight. Every one hundred meters, they placed another relay for the communications link. Giotto's wolves led the pack. Security had taken to calling themselves the wolf pack, interdependent, and protective. The lead wolf, was Kirk. They hunted in the dark. They went to protect the pack. They found the first body six hundred meters into the cave. It was Jerry Springer. Only his face was recognizable. Something had shredded his body beyond recognition. His eyes were opened and staring. Kirk closed the eyes that accused him in death and signaled the squad to continue. The darkness was suffocating, as only the true black of a cave can be. Jagged rocks tried to trip them and boulders were enemies in the dark. Still, they moved forward, silent, deadly and sure. Their lead scout used a life-sign indicator, but in the cave and near the artifact, its range was limited to twenty feet. Just far enough to let the man warn them, and to let the scout know he was about to die. The man right behind him used a heat seeker, any heat against the cool walls of rock would stand out like a beacon. That is how they found the next body, still warm, blood congealed, and torn to shreds. It was a miner. They found five more bodies in the dark, almost totally devoured. Two would require DNA samples to identify. None were Vulcan. None were Enterprise crew. They continued and set up relays while they moved in silence. A whimper, followed by soft sobbing stopped them. The source did not register on the heat seeker. They inched forward with the life-sign indicator. Giotto held Kirk's straining arm to keep him back from the front. Giotto signaled the pack to surround the source, and then positioned himself directly in front of Kirk. He ordered the pack to close in. Wedged behind a large rock, in a tiny crevice, was Lt. Lily. She was covered with blood and scrapes, and silently stared with eyes full of tears. Kirk inched slowly towards her and removed his visor so she could see his face. She looked at him with a sob of recognition. He held his finger to her mouth to stop any further outburst and had a redshirt call for McCoy. Satisfied that McCoy was on his way, he left one man behind with her, and continued down the corridor. They found two more bodies, both miners, both cut to pieces. Then they came near the cavern. The entire tunnel was glowing and pulsing in an unearthly light. Kirk had the team stop and signal the surface and give a detailed report on everything they had done and found so far. McCoy already had Lily back on the ship with Chapel and was following at the prescribed distance. The cavern glowed with a greenish light that emanated from the artifact. The sigils that outlined the presumed door, counter-pulsated in an orange hue, with streaks of color lancing through them in a pattern. The meaning was lost on the wolf pack. Silently, Kirk motioned everyone to fan out and search for any more survivors. He scanned the cavern with his soul, searching for a tendril, a whiff of his T'hy'la. The cave felt empty, as did his heart. "Captain," Giotto came to stand in front of him. "We found abandoned equipment, a few traces of blood, human, and that's all. What now?" He watched his Captain and waited for the look that signaled a decision had been made. Kirk would figure out something; he always did; Giotto believed. "Signal science lab to send down sensors. I want new readings on the surface. I want everything we do and say transmitted immediately to the ship. If anything happens to us, at least they'll have a record." He walked over to the entrance to the artifact. Giotto shadowed him closely. When Kirk reached the surface he stared at it silently, until finally he raised both hands, laid them against the surface, and rested briefly. Giotto followed his example and felt warmth tingling just below the cool outer wall of artifact. The glow illuminated their hands and seemed to leak out through their pores. McCoy entered at that very instant, to the sight of his Captain touching the glowing wall. Kirk was lit up as if he himself glowed with an inner fire. Kirk picked that moment to turn away from the artifact directly toward McCoy. When he reached him, he walked past and motioned for him to follow. "I want to talk to Lily. Go back to the ship and do what you have to so I can question her. I'm going to look at the other bodies." "Jim," McCoy called out softly to the rigid back walking in front of him. "What if they're all dead? What if Spock's dead?" "He's not." Kirk said abruptly. "What if he dies?" McCoy persisted he had no choice. The question needed to be brought out. "I'll get the ship back home, Bones. I promise you nothing after that." He did not turn or stop. He walked on ahead into the darkness. McCoy sighed and motioned for his team to return with him to the surface. There was nothing for them to do down here. McCoy, looked on in satisfaction. Lt. Lilly finally slept after he had finished their latest therapeutic session. He suddenly felt a need to go visit his Captain. When he arrived at Jim's quarters, he found the privacy lock in place. That was definitely uncharacteristic for Jim. He buzzed and waited patiently for the Captain to answer. There was none. He buzzed again. Finally, exasperated, he used his medical override and stomped into the cabin ready for a fight. No fight was forthcoming. Jim was slumped on the floor beside his bed on the side opposite the door. He held his head in both of his hands and slowly rocked back and forth on the ground. He gave off a quiet moan intermittently. It was obvious he did not even know that McCoy was in the room. "Jim, what's going on? Did you hurt yourself?" McCoy dropped down beside him, reached for his hands, and pulled them away from his face. "Talk to me, dammit. What the hell is wrong with you?" McCoy's only answer was a low moan. He reached for his medical scanner and ran it over his Captain. The monitor showed alarmingly high levels of pain, hypertension, hypoglycemia, and general exhaustion. He dialed new settings into his hypo and injected. He sat back and waited for the medicine to take effect. Five minutes later, Jim looked up to him with a look of recognition and appreciation. Then, suddenly Jim jumped to his feet and lurched on unsteady feet to the fresher. McCoy followed behind him. He sat beside Jim and held his head while he emptied the contents of his guts into the stool. "How long has this been going on?" Jim looked at him through bleary eyes. "Ever since I came back to the ship." "The two of you are going to be the death of me yet. Why the hell didn't you tell me this was going on? You know I am a doctor. I have stuff to fix problems like this." "Bones, there's nothing you can do for this. There's something they are doing to interfere with our bond. I guess my mind sees it as a torn Bond. If you sedate me enough to get rid of the pain, I won't be able to think any more and I won't be able to hear Spock if he calls. I'll deal with it in my own way." "Like hell you will. I will be checking on you every four hours until Spock is back. If I think that you can't handle it any more, I'll knock you out myself. You won't do him any good, or us any good, by killing yourself. We need you James T. Kirk. You don't have the right to indulge yourself. Get a grip on it." McCoy dialed another setting on the hypo and gave him a second injection. "This will last you until my next visit. Don't give me any shit, 'cause I don't have time for it. Do you understand me?" Jim nodded weakly. "I know you're right. It just hurts so much, Bones. It's like somebody ripped out all of my insides and left my skin intact. I'm trying to hold on, not just for you, or the ship, but because I believe I can get my crew back. It's so hard for me to think. I feel like someone shot a gaping hole through my head." McCoy helped him stand up from the floor of the fresher. "You are going to go to bed and get some rest. I'll be back to check up on you in a few hours. If you have not slept for at least four hours, I'm going to give you a sedative. Don't even think you have a choice on the matter." They reached the side of the bed and McCoy helped Jim to lower himself down onto it. "Jim, as much as I care about you both, I don't really understand how it feels to have a mental bond with someone. To be honest, I don't want to know, either. I can't conceive of how it feels to have someone in your head all the time. All I know is, you passing out on the floor of your own cabin does no one any good." McCoy walked towards the door and dialed down the lights. "Go to sleep, Captain. I'll wake you up if we need you." Two days later, the artifact still glowed, McCoy had sedated Jim for two 8 hour stretches of uninterrupted sleep. The members of the crew were still missing, and Komack had arrived. The Admiral had commandeered a Starship, the Excalibur. Its Captain was Safir Wai. He was a fifty year old native of Mars with a gentle wit, a handlebar mustache that he loved to twirl the ends of, and a fierce protectiveness for his crew. Kirk liked Wai, which was more than he had ever been able to say about Komack. On a certain level, Kirk understood why Komack detested him. Richard Komack had been embarrassed, out maneuvered, and at one point, out ranked by Kirk. All of that irritated Komack to no end. Today, with his crew missing, his T'hy'la missing, and his link silent, Kirk didn't give a shit whether Komack liked him or not. They would work together and he would get his crew back. He personally led Komack, Wai, and Wai's First Officer, Abdullah Ben- Obi, to the briefing room. They sat and Kirk had the departments bring everyone up-to-date. When they finished, Komack turned to Kirk in exasperation. "You mean to tell me you lost half of the civilian mining team, your First Officer, your Chief Engineer, and 15 other members of your crew, and you still don't know what happened?" Komack's mouth twitched when he was angry and it danced a jig as he spoke. "What kind of kindergarten romp are you running? You didn't even try to dent the surface of the artifact. Shit, Kirk, why didn't you blast it open?" McCoy and Sulu moved to protest and Kirk silenced them both with a glance. "Dr. McCoy, bring Lt. Lily in now, please." McCoy got up to comply and Kirk turned dead eyes on Komack. "Perhaps, you would like to hear from Lt. Lily before you pass judgment, Admiral." There was no life in his voice, and no fire. Lt. Lily was ushered in with Chapel on one side and McCoy on the other. She was still in Sickbay gray and had a nervous look that leaped across the room. They led her slowly to a seat and sat her in it. Chapel hovered protectively behind her while McCoy took a seat. Kirk began. "Lt. Lily is the only survivor we were able to locate. She hid herself in a crack in the wall of the corridor behind a large rock that obscured the opening." His voice softened towards the end. When he turned to the lieutenant, a smile touched his face. She relaxed visibly in response. "Lieutenant, please tell Admiral Komack and Captain Wai what you saw. They won't interrupt you." She began very softly. "Well, it was like I told you, Captain. We were going over the markings we had found on the artifact, on the west side of the "door". I had asked Mr. Spock to come and see them." Her voice got less hesitant. "Mr. Hancock and Commander Scott were arguing over intensifying the harmonics and range of the drill. They started hollering at each other about it. Mr. Scott was against it and Mr. Hancock wanted to do it because it would cut the drilling time down considerably." "Mr. Spock went over to mediate and looked at the data and told Mr. Hancock not to do it. Hancock did it anyway," her voice choked with emotion and tears began to run down her face unnoticed. Chapel squeezed her shoulder softly. "The bastard." She struggled and the room waited. "He screamed at Springer to go ahead." Her hands clinched the sides of the chair. "The drill melted the rock, and when it hit the artifact, you could see the whole thing begin to glow. Mr. Spock told us all to evacuate immediately. So we ran for the tunnel. Before we could reach it, all the lights went out, except for the glow from the artifact." "We all flipped down our visors and ran. The miners had refused to wear the equipment, because they thought we were being stupid, so we had to pull them along in the dark. Mr. Spock and Mr. Scott were at the back with Hancock. When we got into the tunnel it went pitch black." She started to gasp and her eyes dilated as she saw something not in the room, but in the tunnel of two days ago. "We could smell them. It smelled like something out of a nightmare, and then we heard the scratching and scrambling from behind." ""Mr. Spock hollered at us to keep going and I heard phaser blasts from behind us." She sobbed. "We ran with our weapons drawn. The miners wouldn't run because they couldn't see. They tried to hide instead. I kept hearing phasers and screaming from behind me until I knew I wouldn't make it to the surface. So, I hid behind a rock. I could hear them screaming and dying and all I could do was hide." She rocked back and forth sobbing. "I'm so sorry, Sir. I didn't know what else to do. Our communicators wouldn't work and it was obvious the phasers didn't stop them, so I hid. Oh my God." Chapel stroked her head slowly. Kirk looked at Komack. His face was unreadable. "Do you have any further questions, Admiral?" Komack shook his head. Kirk stood and slowly crossed over to Lily. He gently lifted her chin so she was forced to look him in the eye. "You did the very best you could do, Lieutenant. Without you, we wouldn't have a clue as to what happened down there." "But, I hid." She whispered. "You followed orders. You were told to evacuate and you did. Now we know what started it all, and we know phasers don't work. You have probably saved someone's life with that information. There are no buts." He stood. "Dismissed, Lieutenant. I expect you back on duty tomorrow." She stood slowly and lunged for her Captain. She hugged him tightly and wordlessly, stood back, and saluted. Her eyes were still flowing. "Yes, Sir." Chapel escorted her out. "Do you have any more questions, Admiral Komack?" Kirk asked after he had seated himself again. His face had returned to an emotionless mask. "What did you have planned?" Komack asked begrudgingly. "We rang their bell once. I plan to do it again. But this time, from a distance, with monitors in place." Kirk replied quietly. Komack pondered the plan. He asked more questions, got more answers, and reluctantly agreed. They finished setting up the equipment. The process had begun two days prior to Komack's arrival, so only a few things needed to be completed. This time, they had bored a drill hole straight from the cavern to the surface and had a primary relay placed there, with vid cameras using zero light scopes, sound, motion, and full sensor arrays. Kirk beamed everyone back from the surface and had the drill activated by remote control. Once again, the cavern was lit by blinding blue green light. It began to pulse in a throbbing rhythm. They all watched from the bridge as the sigils around the door began to glow brighter and brighter, until they were blood red. The artifact opened. A dark pit of swirling air rolled in the depths of the doorway, before they could clearly discern anything, the artificial lights began to dim, and then they died. Now, only the rhythmic glow from the artifact lit the tunnel. Abruptly, it was snuffed out and the cavern was plunged into darkness. The zero light vidcams clicked on instantaneously, capturing on vid, for all to see, the most hideous aberrations imaginable spilling out of the side of the artifact. The creatures were huge, four times the size of a humanoid. They had chitinous armor and multi-segmented bodies. They resembled a cross between the desert scorpion of Earth, a lobster, and a nightmare. Two sets of manipulative arms, jutted out from the thorax. The abdomen had three sets of legs and a tail with a deadly looking stinger tipped with fronds that undulated. Admiral Komack stood at Kirk's side. "Shit and Andorian's blue balls, they look like something out of a damn horror vid." Kirk did not respond, instead he turned to Uhura. "Begin the sequence, Lieutenant." "Aye, Sir." Komack looked at Kirk. "What are you doing, Captain? We discussed nothing about any sequence." "We are attempting to communicate, Admiral." Kirk responded quietly. "That is our mission. These creatures are obviously intelligent. They have my crew and I wish to set up a dialogue with them. I personally don't give a damn how they look, I want my crew back." Sulu gave Chekov a look of satisfaction. No matter what, they knew Kirk would never lose sight of that goal: retrieve the crew. They watched as the lasers swiveled towards the creatures and slowly began a series of flashes grouped together and sequenced to mathematically progress from one plus one to two plus two, until finally it would conclude with pi, the universal constant. The creatures reared back and turned inhumanly fast towards the light source. They scuttled over to the laser and watched the numerical progression for the 32 minutes it took to complete the cycle, before the light began again with the same message. When the first cycle was completed, they turned to each other, and the crew watched as thin tubules disgorged from the mouths of the creatures and impaled the adjoining creature, until a circuit had been completed, and they all were linked by biological tubes. The creatures stood in complete silence in a circle, and the crew waited for 3.4 hours and hoped against despair for some signal that they had been heard. Meanwhile, the xenobiology labs compiled and reviewed everything they had just recorded. There was no record of any remotely similar intelligent life form. There was no record of any similar form of communication. There was no help. Once again, the Enterprise and her crew found themselves blazing entirely new trails. Then, without any obvious explanation, all the creatures turned and moved back into the artifact and the door shut, possibly on all of their hopes. "Blast it, goddammit. Blow it up. Blow the damn thing up and let's get out of here." Komack's voice cut through the silence on the bridge. "Mr. Chekov, repeat the sequence." The drill once again shot towards the surface of the reflective wall. This time, the surface continued to brighten until ship wide sensors were tripped and alarms began to klaxon. "Mr. Chekov," he was manning the science station, "what are you reading?" Chekov turned to Kirk with fear across his face. "Captain, I'm getting readings of a power surge, magnitude equivalent to that of a sun, emanating from below the entire surface of the planet. The entire planet is beginning to resonate." "Mr. Sulu, take us out of orbit and away from the planet. I want distance, now. Chekov, have science position satellites in orbit to record whatever happens next. Let the Excalibur know what we're doing and why, Uhura." "Kirk, what are you doing?" Komack barked. Kirk turned to look briefly at Komack. "We have company, Admiral and they're about to make their grand entry." "Then, let's get out of here, now." "No, my crew is still down there inside with them. I want first contact with them and I want my crew back." "Goddammit, Kirk, this is not about you and your damn wants. This isn't about Spock, either. We need to get back to Starfleet and let them know what we've found." Kirk's voice was deadly quiet and calm. Everyone on the bridge knew that it was the voice he used when no discussion was possible. He stood and went to stand in front of Komack, who visibly fought the desire to retreat from the smaller man. "This is not about Spock. I have 17 men and women down there. I've reason to believe they're alive. That is a technologically advanced and ancient race. Our mission is to make first contact. This is what we do, Richard. This is who we are. If you're too frightened to watch, get off my bridge." "I outrank you, Kirk." Komack shouted. "My flag rank is Admiral, Sir, in case you forgot. But standing orders require I attempt to make contact and you are obviously forgetting that. When you start acting like an Admiral, I'll listen to you. But, I'll be damned if I turn and run without my people, and without finding out who these creatures are. Everybody has to die, Admiral. One day is just as good as another." His glare allowed no room for dissent. "I'm taking this up with Nogura. I'm going back to the Excalibur and calling him now." "I think that is an excellent idea. Security," two men stepped down and stood at attention, "escort the Admiral to the transporter room and see that he is safely transported back to the Excalibur." They marched out with a furious Admiral between them. The bridge sat in the wake of their Captain and their Admiral's fight. Uhura got up and crossed to stand beside her Captain. "Jim, he's going to be in contact with Nogura within the next hour. That doesn't give us a long time. What are you going to do if Nogura agrees with him? You know we'll back you, whatever you decide." He reached over, grabbed her hand, and squeezed gently. "Thank you, Nyota. Hopefully, it won't come to that." "Captain," Chekov broke in, "the planet is starting to resonate at a higher intensity and frequency. I am picking up waves of turbulence heading our way. They are force five." "Get a reading on them and feed them to Mr. Sulu. Sulu, face into the energy waves until we can't take it, and then ride them out to the point where it's force three or below." Kirk turned to Uhura. "You better get back to your station and have everyone rig for turbulence, unknown magnitude." "Aye, Captain," she smiled and clasped his hand again before she left. Kirk turned again. "Lt. Uhura, let Captain Wai know what we're doing. He might be unduly distracted by loud noises and miss this." Sulu snickered. "Split screen, Sulu. Show the satellite views and ours. Maximum magnification on satellite images." "Aye, Sir." "Mother Russia," Chekov gasped. The planet was literally shaking apart, right before their eyes. Continents heaved and rippled like skin on the back of a great animal. Mountain ranges rose and fell in minutes. Oceans disappeared as the very sea floor cracked, spilling its contents into the interior of the planet which then spewed the water forth into the atmosphere as a violent spray of liquid. Fine mists arose from the surface as the water that was to bathe the colonists, floated up into the vacuum of space. The crew of both ships watched in awe as minute by minute, hour by hour, more of the skin was shed to reveal the brilliantine surface that had been hidden from view for 9 billion years. Waves of turbulence hit the ships and sent them roaring up and over the cresting flows of energy. The water and dust from the planet's destruction formed a fog that became denser and denser as the hours ticked off. Someone gasped, Uhura, as the sun rose one last time over the horizon of the world bent on its own destruction. When the sun met the shimmering mists of moisture, frozen gases and dust; a most wonderful sight filled their eyes. A rainbow, the size of a world, arced over the sky and filled them all with wonder. For four days, twelve hours, and 24 minutes, the Excalibur and Enterprise sat and watched the death of the planet and the birth of something never seen before. The artifact molted its skin and was born again, pristine and puissant, and the size of a world. The nine billion-year-old vessel pulsated with shades of all the colors imaginable flashing under it's skin, like the reflected light from a diamond. Over a parsec away, it still dwarfed the two Starships. Dark as night and bright as a sun, it hung motionless in space and both ships prayed the next move was not their last. It was a perfect sphere, with not a single defect on the surface, no visible openings, still absolutely resistant to their attempts to scan the interior. "Uhura, open a channel to the Excalibur." He waited for Wai's face to come on the forward screen. "Safir, it's not making any hostile moves. We're going to repeat the same sequence, first harmonics, then the numerical sequence, then the universal lingua code. I will let you know everything I'm going to do before I do it, if I can." "Jim, I'm not sure..." "Kirk," Komack interrupted, "you are to desist all attempts to contact the artifact. We will handle it from here." "Admiral, we already started it and have it programmed to go. What sense does it make to wait for you to do it?" "It makes sense because I told you to stop. I'm in charge of this mission now. You heard Nogura." Komack had called Nogura, and Kirk had been duly reamed out by his C in C for insubordination. Then Komack had gotten the same treatment, because he had forgotten the cardinal mission of all Starships, to seek out new worlds, new civilizations. "Sit there and jump when I damn well tell you to, or warp out of here." Komack's voice was getting louder and louder as he spoke. His face was taking on the beefy red glow of obstinacy. Kirk decided to save his court-martial for something more important than shining flashlights at an alien. "I defer to your expertise, Admiral. Enterprise out." He sat back and rubbed his temples in attempt to ease the throbbing of his head. He felt a pressure against his shoulder and a warm hiss of medication was injected into his arm. McCoy stood next to him holding a hypo. "Damn, Bones, have you ever thought of asking first?" "Nope. You would've said you're fine and didn't need anything. When was a last time you ate, Jim?" "Lunch." "Yesterday," Uhura chimed in. Kirk looked around at her in amusement. "It's a conspiracy." Kirk's yeoman came forward with a sandwich and a juice. "Eat, Jim. Passing out from pain or hunger won't get them back." Bones pleaded and quietly added, "Between you fighting Komack, going after our people, and setting up the contact, you're burning yourself out. It could impair your judgment. You know we need you on the top of your form if Komack is around." Kirk stared at him gratefully. He knew the last few days he had buried himself in work to keep from thinking about Spock, Scotty, and his other 15 crewmembers, but most especially Spock. Sometimes, fear and pain grabbed his chest and made him have to slowly and deliberately breathe. His head had hurt continuously since Spock's scream awakened him. The pain in his head was nothing compared to the ache in his soul. Without his T'hy'la, neither the Enterprise nor the stars held anything beautiful for him any longer. If Spock died, he would get his crew back to Earth, then he would leave the Enterprise, Earth, the Federation, and responsibility behind. They would all be things of the past. As would he, most probably. Spock had always been his word of caution, his sense of restraint. Without Spock, he probably would fly into the sun one day, just to see if it was truly hot. He laughed humorlessly and McCoy answered with a smile. "We better get them back, so we can hear that more often." Bones whispered for Kirk's ears alone. "Captain," Uhura called, "the Excalibur has started to signal the alien vessel." "Captain, they are using the phasers to signal them." Chekov shouted. "They are at ten percent of full power." "What the hell," Kirk dropped the sandwich. "Uhura, signal the Excalibur to stop the use of the phaser. It will not duplicate the harmonics of the drill." Wai's face came on screen. "Jim, we thought we could use energy amplification and light fluctuation to signal them. Admiral Komack wants it this way." "Safir, we used a drill, a plain harmonic laser drill. You have no way to know a phaser will get the same response. The energy readings and wavelengths are entirely different." "I understand your point, Jim. Really, I do. Orders are orders." Wai looked over his shoulder briefly and turned back to the screen. "Look, Jim, be ready to rescue our asses if you have to. I resent dying over the choice of a signaling tool. Wai out." Kirk got up and began pacing angrily as the Excalibur began its signaling into the surface of the gigantic globe with the phaser. "Uhura, signal engineering to get transporter techs to every single transporter pad we have. Have each location designate a part of Excalibur as their responsibility. I want to be ready to transport over the whole damn crew of Excalibur if we have to." "Aye, Sir." "Jim," Bones walked along with his pacing, "why would Komack use a phaser when we used a drill?" "So he could say he used something different and that is what actually succeeded. Ego, pure frigging ego. I don't like it. All those recordings did not show those beings making a single audible sound. There's no reason to suspect regular subspace radio will work. They may not be able to hear. But vibration or harmonics must cause some kind of response from them or they'd still be in a dark ball in the center of the world. It's stupid to switch to phasers now. Phasers don't vibrate along harmonic paths. I don't see why he would use those... oh damn." "What's wrong, Jim?" Kirk turned and looked at McCoy in disgust. "He's testing his weapons on them. He's using weapons for signaling and recording any defenses. If they think of the phaser as a signal, they won't shield against it when he uses it full strength." "Komack ain't that bright." McCoy retorted. "Maybe not, but Nogura is and they've been chatting for two days now." His eyes became glazed. "He'll use photon torpedoes next, probably dead ones with drills in them, let them get close and signal with those." Kirk winced and bent over the railing and clutched his head. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." "Jim, let me..." "No, no more. Another shot will put me out. I need to be awake." He turned and looked at McCoy in open appeal, "please, Bones." "Jim, is this a migraine, or the bond?" "The bond." Kirk whispered. "Is he still alive?" "I think so, I still feel something, but no thoughts, no essence." A fine sheen of sweat coated his forehead. McCoy knew Jim was in pain. He also knew he could not fix this hurt and leave him conscious. "Sit down, before you fall down." He watched as his Captain meekly obeyed. That was a sure sign of Jim's level of distress. McCoy walked over to Uhura's COM. "Uhura, get me a shipwide page." She flipped the switch and signaled readiness. "This is Dr. McCoy, all medical personnel are to report to the main Sickbay and pick up your emergency kits. You are to keep them on your person at all times." Kirk looked up at McCoy when he returned to stand beside Kirk's chair. "What was all that about?" "Doctors get hunches too, you know." McCoy quipped. "Now excuse me while I go ask God to keep Komack from killing us all." "Put in a word for Spock, Scotty, and the rest of my missing crew also," Kirk asked quietly. "I always do. Lord knows the heathens need it." He grabbed Kirk's shoulder and shook it gently before he left. "Chekov, any readings from our guests?" "No, Sir. The surface seems to fully reflect the phaser. No resonance or harmonics are registering." Kirk turned to sign off on the PADDS his yeoman handed to him. Regardless of whether or not they were trying to talk to a civilization billions of years old, paperwork was paperwork. "Captain," Chekov's voice shouted, "the Excalibur has strengthened the phaser to 1/2 force." "Response from the alien vessel?" Kirk asked instantly. He leaned forward in the seat. "None, Sir." "Where's the site we identified as the entrance, Chekov?" "Unknown, Sir." "Identify it and tell the Excalibur we're going to line up in front of it. Uhura, ask them if they want to join us and redirect their signals towards the known entrance." "Aye, Sir. Captain Wai says, wonderful idea, he will comply. And, Sir," Kirk turned to look at her, "he says the cat's away." Kirk laughed and turned back to the screen. They might pull this off yet. The thought helped to ease the ache in his chest and his head just a bit." "Captain, I have located the coordinates of the door," Chekov announced. "Feed them to the helm. Mr. Leslie, I want you to plot an updated course every five minutes and lay in the fastest route out of this system. I want no delay if we have to run. Sulu, take us to the door, put us 10,000 meters away from it, and match any rotation of the vessel." The Excalibur followed them and began signaling again, this time directly towards the opening. They sat patiently and waited for an answer. Two hours later, the Excalibur announced it was going to increase the phaser to 75 percent of full power. When they did, all hell broke loose. The bridge of the Enterprise watched as the Excalibur once again began the signaling pattern with phasers at 75 percent. The beam shot out from the Excalibur and hit the door, which suddenly erupted into a brilliant flare of light. "Screen, dampen forward screen by 50 percent." Kirk shouted while he tried to watch the vessel through his hands. "Sir, returning fire from the alien vessel." Kirk watched as a beam of light shot out from the alien vessel towards the Excalibur and rocked it through its shields. "Forward shields full strength, Sulu. Analyze that beam, Chekov." "Sir, the Excalibur is powering its weapons up to full strength, " Sulu warned. "No, that's wrong," he turned to Chekov. "Analyze the beam, Chekov." The Russian scurried; he had never hoped to be as fast as Spock, suddenly he needed to be faster. There it was. "Captain, those are phasers, 75 percent Federation standard." "Excalibur is firing full strength phasers," Sulu shouted. "Signal the Excalibur to hold their fire, Uhura." The beam from the Excalibur lanced off into the night, impacting the planetoid and just as surely was turned back, into the Excalibur, full force. The ship rocked at the impact. "Excalibur is firing photon torpedoes, Sir," Chekov hollered. "Uhura..." Kirk turned on his communications Wizard. "They're not acknowledging us, Captain." "Damn," he turned to watch as the photon torpedoes were absorbed utterly and completely by the planetoid. Next, the Excalibur unleashed its phasers in a continuous assault on the ship and started evasive maneuvers. "Sir, I have the Excalibur." Uhura announced triumphantly. "Wai," Kirk shouted as soon as the Excalibur Bridge focused. "Stop firing. Your own reflected weapons are hitting you. They are not firing. You probably set off some automated defense mechanism or maybe they think you're signaling them still." Wai started to speak and was interrupted by Admiral Komack. "Kirk, fire at the vessel. We are under attack. You're ordered to engage the vessel." "Admiral, you are not under attack." The Excalibur Bridge rocked as the shields were hit again, but held. "Those are your weapons being reflected. Use your own sensors to check it out." "What difference does it make if they use our weapons or their own? We are being fired upon. I order you to attack." "I can't do that, Sir. Our system was rigged to signal with drilling lasers. Our phasers are off line." "You're lying, Kirk. Fire your damn weapons." Komack yelled over the weapons' noise. "Admiral, if you'll stop firing..." suddenly, the Excalibur bridge went black. "Uhura?" Kirk turned to her. "We've lost the signal at the source, Sir." "Captain, the shields have dropped on the Excalibur. There are hull breaches on deck's 7,9, and 5. Life-support has been compromised." "Start beaming them over now. Maintain our position and drop our shields." Kirk turned back to the screen and the alien. "Yes, Sir." Tense minutes passed as they began to rescue the crew of the Excalibur. Finally, Rand signaled from the main transporter room. "We have 356 members of the Excalibur crew alive, 76 injured, 73 unaccounted for, Captain. And Sir, Komack and Wai are on their way to the bridge. I've notified security." "Thank you, Rand. Bridge out." "73 dead. Stupid, just plain damn stupid." He muttered and waited for Komack to burst through the doors. Kirk prepared himself for the battle ahead. They sat and watched the Excalibur spark and spew forth its contents. It was a man made celestial light show without joy. Kirk didn't need to turn to know when Komack entered the bridge. The hostility was palpable. Komack began shouting the minute he breached the doorway. "Kirk, damn your cowardly hide. I'll have you busted down to a yeoman. You are relieved of duty." Kirk's swiveled his chair around to face him. "Did you prefer that I destroy my ship too, so that there would be nowhere to beam your crew? Did you want 864 dead? Isn't 73 dead enough? Admiral Komack, they did not fire." Kirk tried to use reason. "Those were your own weapons. They had the same energy signature and came off in an exactly reflective vector. You fired on yourself. What good would it do for me to do the same? I will not destroy my ship out of stupidity, or ego." He stood directly in Komack's face and his voice dropped to a barest of whispers. "The next time you call me a coward, make sure it's over subspace radio." Komack turned to look at Kirk's bridge crew and suddenly saw that he had no chance of taking command from him. It hit him in his gut. This was not Starfleet's ship; this was Kirk's ship and the knowledge galled him. He decided, then and there, if they made it back to Earth, he would scatter this crew to the four corners of the galaxy. "Captain," Sulu called out, "the alien vessel is moving towards us." Kirk instantly forgot Komack and turned back towards the screen and took his seat. "Should we raise our shields, Captain?" Lt. Leslie asked. "Negative. Uhura, begin signaling again from the beginning, per our original plan." The harmonic drill shot out through the void of space and hit the doorway of the vessel. It continued to approach them, slowly, stately. They gave no hint that they had just destroyed a Starship. The beam hit. Now, as in the tunnel, the sigils around the doorway lit and began to pulsate. They continued the sequence and the glow spread from the doorway, out toward the entire globe in waves, until it writhed and pulsated with light and crackling lines of energy thousands of meters long. "Fire, Kirk." Komack insisted. "No." He answered quietly, but no less confidently. "We wait. It's their move." "Are you crazy? Look at that power. What hope do you have against something like that? Fire, or take us out of here." Suddenly, it hit Kirk. He understood what had always been between he and Komack. In fact, the issue was between Komack and anyone like Kirk. Komack had never been a Starship Captain. Komack had never made a first contact. Komack had never destroyed enemy ships as they tried to destroy the one you were on. Komack was terrified, on a bone deep level that had no hope of relief. He was afraid of the unknown and the unknowable. Kirk was momentarily stunned that he had never realized it before. He always thought Komack hated he and Spock, because of the incident with Spock's first Pon Farr. No, it went deeper than that. Komack hated them because they breathed deep space and met new races in wonder, instead of fear. The simple act of understanding, made him smile. He vowed to explain it to Spock when Kirk got them home. "Continue the sequence, Uhura." He relaxed back in the chair and waited. The court-martial would be brief, he assured himself. If they didn't jail him, he and Spock would retire to Vulcan. "There's movement on the surface, Captain. The door is opening." Chekov was riveted to his science station viewer. "They are at 10,000 meters and closing, Captain." Sulu reported. The opening was now visible on the surface. "The doorway is 500 meters in diameter, 1000 meters, 1500 meters..." The opening got wider and wider, revealing nothing of the interior, only darkness deeper than space. Kirk could hear Komack's breathing beside him. His new insights made him have a twinge of sympathy for the older man, who he now realized was completely out of his zone of comfort. He turned and Captain Wai gave him an enigmatic look, which at least hinted he had not judged him to be insane, yet. The beam of light lanced out from the globe and shimmered on the ship's shields. "Harmonics, Captain, matching ours, exactly." Uhura calmly reported. "Next sequence, Uhura." They started again. This time they left gaps in the sequencing. Again the beam hit them. "Response, 100 percent Captain. All dropped sequences were filled. Do you want me to transmit universal lingua code now?" "Yes." She did. "No response. I can try again with the beam and send it as vibration only." "Do it, Uhura." He didn't question how she did it. She was the magician; it was time for her to do her magic. This time, when the beam hit the ship, the entire vessel began to rock. It was palpable and audible even through the void of space, which should've been impossible. Kirk watched as the globe began to glow, building to a brilliance of a billion candle watts. Just when the light became almost unbearable, it stopped, and the globe moved... towards them. "Captain, it is at 5,000 meters and closing." "Back off, Mr. Sulu, maintain our distance." Sulu hit his board rapidly. "Unable, Sir. We are being held. The helm and the engines respond, but we haven't moved." Kirk set back in the chair. "I believe we have been invited to visit." He flipped his COM, "Giotto, requisition a No. 23 and bring it to me." He didn't wait for the answer. "Shipwide, Uhura." "You have it, Captain." "This is the Captain speaking. We're about to make first contact with the alien vessel. We are now being drawn into its interior. This is what you signed on for. I want everyone on board in their environmental suits, with emergency supplies on their persons. These beings are billions of years old and may not understand our requirements. Make me proud. Kirk out." Komack came and stood in front of him. "You are just going to sit here and let them pull us inside?" "I see no other alternatives right now. Anyway, they are inside that world size globe and since I want to meet them, and get my crew back. It seems the logical thing to do." "This is still about getting Spock back," Komack sneered. Kirk smiled. "I don't think you'll ever understand me, Admiral." Wai came over and took Komack's arm. "Admiral, Starfleet regulations mandate him to make contact. He is a Starship Captain. It is what we do." Komack snatched his arm away. "Both of you are the same. We should have left and quarantined the entire system." Wai shook his head gently. "No, Admiral, he did what he had to do. I never should've allowed you to help me destroy my own ship. You're wrong and when we get back to Starfleet, I'll say that to anyone and everyone who'll listen." Komack turned to say something but Sulu's quiet voice interrupted. "We're about to enter the vessel." They turned in time to see the darkness engulf the ship. Suddenly, the interior of the ship surged with vibration and a brilliant red glow. When the glow vanished, so had every person on board. A whisper of mind contact, the smell of incense, the rustle of dark robes, a desert breeze, a Le'Matya's call. Joyful laughter, fresh mown hay, wind whipping through a flying mane, a sail slapping briskly in a lull in a storm, the smell of salt water. They woke up on the floor of a brightly-lit room. Room did not describe it well, a cavern or dome was more descriptive. It was surrounded on all sides by a clear substance that allowed them to see above them and around them. Everywhere they looked, they saw creatures. They moved, they stood still; they work on walls of instruments that seemed to be made of light; they touched; they surrounded them in the thousands. McCoy awoke next to one of the crewman from the Excalibur that he been monitoring in Sickbay. His medical tricorder was still in his hands. He ran over the crewman and satisfied himself that the man was sleeping peacefully and naturally. His medical kit was still strapped to his waist. He turned and saw others struggling up into consciousness. Some were in full environmental suits. It looked like all seven hundred odd lives aboard the Enterprise were here in a space the size of a giant null gravity hockey stadium. He grunted. "Another fine mess you gotten us into, Jimboy." He looked for Chapel. "Christine," she was already waking up. "You stay with these kids and keep the medical team concentrated here. Have them clear away a space and cordon it off for medical problems only. I'm going to go find our fearless leader, whereever he is." She nodded and got up slowly to start. "Leonard," she called, "how are you going to find us again?" "I'll just holler." She chuckled and started moving. It took McCoy another ten minutes to find Kirk, and he didn't like what he saw when he found him. Uhura was holding him in her lap and he was still unconscious, even though everyone else seemed to be up and moving. He saw Nyota's grateful smile and rushed over to evaluate him. "Shit, I should've known," he muttered to himself. He pulled Kirk up by his shirt and slapped him hard. Uhura winced in sympathy but didn't try to stop him. Wai and Komack moved forward but were intercepted by Chekov and Sulu. McCoy slapped Kirk again, harder, and again. Suddenly, he felt his hand gripped in a steel vice. "Bones, I think you like to do that." Kirk sat up and rubbed his jaw. "Don't tempt me. It was getting kind of fun. I have to assume the pointy-eared imp is alive somewhere in all of this." "Yes," Kirk's smile was enough to make McCoy blush. "Don't do that." He grumbled. Kirk laughed, jumped up, turned around and pulled Uhura up next to him. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Nyota." "Don't mention it. Anyway it was just an excuse to hug my Captain." "You don't ever need an excuse, Nyota. Grab me anytime." They smiled at each other comfortably. He looked around. "It looks like everybody is here. Chekov, take an inventory of what supplies people have. Sulu, count heads, make sure no one's missing. Uhura, I want you to see if they managed to bring us here with anything we can communicate with. Then we wait for them to say hello again. I'm going to walk the perimeter." He turned to start, and magically Giotto and five members of the wolf pack appeared dressed in full armor. "We will go with you, Captain." Giotto said quietly. Kirk nodded and left for his tour. The bubble they were in was immense, at least 10,000 meters around. It floated in the midst of an even larger chamber, that stretched around them in all directions. Some of the walls receded into the distance, curving away into mist. Tunnels branched off in all directions; their doors were surrounded by glowing hieroglyphics. Panels of lights and sparkling surfaces gleamed at them and pulsated in tune to an ancient rhythm. There was no sign of any life or the creatures they had seen in the vids. Giotto watched Kirk and let his men watch the outside world. He suspected Kirk would be the early warning device. He knew his Captain would not wait for security, but run to the front as he always did. The pack had pledged to keep Kirk alive, or die in the effort, falling with all weapons spent. They continued on their walk, seeing no life, until suddenly, the light around them flared high enough to be seen through shuttered eyelids. A deep vibration shook the floor and surrounding bubble, pulsating irregularly, speeding up, and then slowing. They stood still waiting to see what this new development meant. Off in the distance, the combined crews could be seen scrambling to sit, instead of falling down. "Captain, do you want us to take up new positions?" "No. We wait." The tunnel doors begin to fill with deepening shadows. "Movement, Captain. There is something in the tunnels, " a member of the pack announced. Kirk turned and surveyed the entire scene. Creatures -- huge, reflecting light from their faceted surfaces --entered by the thousands. They scuttled towards the bubble and stopped. The vibration increased and became a deep hum, frequency and amplitude modulated, and completely meaningless to the humans who watched. Thousands of the creatures stood and watched them. These had shredded humans into faint remnants, unrecognizable to those they knew or loved. These creatures had stolen Spock, Scotty, and the other members of his crew. These creatures could shred them just as easily. They stood and watched each other in silence. Finally, Kirk turned to Giotto, "Let's finish the tour. There's nothing to be done about our hosts at the moment. I want to find our people, if we can." It took them one hour and 23 minutes ships time to circumnavigate the dome. They had almost reached their starting point when Kirk came to an abrupt stop. He reached up and touched the clear surface. His eyes were riveted on the wall across from where he stood. Giotto could hear him suck in air and slowly exhale. He went to stand beside his Captain and stared at where Kirk had fixed his gaze. Slowly, the wall began to have discernible lumps that stretched away into the distance. Giotto turned his head from side to side and tried to understand what he was looking at. They looked like bumps in some type of spongy surface. It was hard to see, but it looked as if some of it might be moving, just slightly. "Oh shit," he gasped. He turned to Kirk. "Captain, those are our people aren't they?" Kirk nodded. "Do you know which one is Spock?" Kirk pointed straight ahead and almost in response the wall moved, slightly. Giotto watched as Kirk's hands clinched, then un-clinched. Kirk turned away slowly and continued on back to their temporary command post. When everyone had returned with their information, they moved the command post over to along the wall in front of their crewmembers and sat down to begin their wait for the next move. Mushroom shaped devices erupted out of the floor hours later. Science and engineering were quickly able to determine some were for food, some for water, and some for waste. At least they wouldn't starve or wallow in excrement, McCoy thought to himself as he wondered yet again why he followed Kirk back out into space, one more time. "I could be playing the horses in Kentucky right now," he grumbled to Chapel who chuckled in response. "It's time for the Kentucky Derby. Lone Rider looked real good in the Preakness." "Leonard, shut up. You have never been to the Derby, even when you were in Georgia. Hand me that antibiotic hypo, please, kind grumpy, Sir." "Oh, I can't be grumpy?" He asked. "Here we are inside and alien ship as big as a damn planet, surrounded by deaf-mute 9 billion year old lobsters, and you want me to be a ray of sunshine?" He handed her the hypo. "No, Dear," Chapel smiled. "We love you just the way you are; grumpy, cantankerous, and brilliant." "Only brilliant?" "Forgive me, cantankerous, grumpy, brilliant, opinionated, loyal, handsome, and with the surgical skills of an angel." "That's a better, dammit." He stood up. "Let me go check on our soon-to-be middle-aged boy wonder. He's probably silently nursing the migraine from hell, while he schemes to save the universe. He really believes he can bend steel with his bare hands." "He can't, but Spock can, so it's the same thing." She quipped. McCoy chortled. "I keep forgetting how strong that elf is. Holler if you need me." "Always," she turned back to their few remaining casualties, motioned one of the medics over to her side. McCoy walked over to the command center. He stopped occasionally to check on the crew and see how they were doing. He found one of the doctors from the Excalibur doing the exact thing. The other Excalibur physician was back with Chapel. The ships were working well together, as expected. The Enterprise crew was calm. They expected their Captain to figure a way out of this for them all and the Excalibur crew had caught their confidence bug. Small groups of people sat, played word games, slept, or watched the thousands of creatures that walked over their heads and around them on all sides. The lack of physical threat had made them all relax just a bit. It was a normal human reaction. It was impossible to state hyper alert at all times except for Vulcans, McCoy reminded himself sardonically, and Starship Captains. When he found Kirk, he was seated facing the area where their missing crew was. Komack was in the middle of an angry tirade, which Kirk was pointedly ignoring. Wai was shaking his head silently and the rest of the bridge crew had turned away to at least afford them a semblance of privacy. "Goddammit, Kirk," Komack hissed, "what do your hunches tell you now. We have 800 people in here, no ship, and no weapons that affect them." "We wait, Admiral. They'll contact us." He answered quietly. He never looked away from the wall. That was the last straw. Komack broke. He rushed across the space separating them, lifted Kirk from the ground, and knocked him across the face with a giant back hand that flung him six feet away onto his back. Komack rushed to grab him again, but found two redshirts and Captain Wai in front of him. "Goddammit. I'm tired of you, Kirk. You act like you're a fucking wonder boy, prancing around, using your looks, and that damn half-breed Vulcan shadow of yours. You are nothing but a fucking idiot savant killing machine. What you don't kill, you fuck. What are you going to do with these things, Kirk? Are you going to kill them, or fuck them?" Kirk stood up slowly and wiped the blood from his face. It ran from his mouth in rivulets across his chin to drip slowly on his chest. McCoy moved to touch him, but Kirk moved him aside. Everyone waited. Even Komack had realized he had gone too far. The rasping of Komack's breath was the loudest sound in the nearby space. "Fear is something else, isn't it, Admiral. All those years riding your desk, and our behinds, did nothing to prepare you for the big game." He walked over towards Komack and stopped past the security guards. "You can hit me, you can curse me out; you can court-martial me. I don't care anymore. In answer to your question: I will kill them if I must; I will screw them if I need to; I will communicate with them if I can. I will do what ever I have to, to win." He moved to stand directly in front of Komack and lowered his voice so that only Komack's ears could hear him. "And, if I have to step over your bleeding, cold corpse, to get my crew back, and accomplish my goal, I'll do that too. Don't block me, Komack," he hissed quietly. "Starfleet is a long way away, and out here, I'm the law." Kirk reached up and wiped at the blood again. "Fortunately for you, I'm not the animal you think I am. I'm just what you made me, a Starship Captain. I will do my job, Komack, with you, or over you. The choice is yours." Kirk turned and walked back over to the wall to resume his silent vigil. McCoy quietly walked over to him, cleaned up his face and sealed the lacerations inside his mouth. "He's going to fry you when we get back." "Maybe," Kirk answered flatly. "Jim, is he right?" Kirk turned to stare at McCoy. "Is this only about getting Spock back home?" McCoy ignored the flash of hurt in the hazel eyes. "I need to know." McCoy watched while Jim turned away and ran his fingers through his hair before he turned to look at McCoy again. "You already know the answer. I'd kill Spock with my own hands if I needed to, Bones, and he'd understand. I need you to believe in me, Bones." His face softened into a plea. McCoy sighed. "I do. But, us mere mortals have to hear the words sometimes for reassurance." He hugged Kirk gently around his shoulders and sat down to join him as they waited. It was hours later when Komack came and sat down across from Kirk, on the floor. The Captain eyed him warily. Kirk heard the Admiral curse softly under his breath and take a pull of air. "I shouldn't have hit you." Kirk nodded and let him continue. "This is not what I do. I solve administrative problems, negotiate diplomatic issues, talk to people, and tell people what to do." Kirk smiled without humor, and offered no comment. "I have no control over these creatures and damn little over you. That makes me mad. You are a hard man to command, Kirk." "I know. You're not the first person to tell me that." His eyes looked back into a past of hard decisions and command isolation. "Have you ever thought that the reason they sent me out here, is because of that very fact. I'm not a follower, Komack. I make decisions; lots of them are painful ones. Sometimes I wish I could sit back and let someone else do it. I think my inability to let go is one of my fatal flaws. I can live with that." He faced Komack with a simple honesty. A small amount of blood still stained the side of his mouth, where Komack had split this lip. The swelling was at its maximum and his skin was bruised. Komack felt small and embarrassed at the same time. Suddenly, Komack realized how much simple envy had motivated him in the past, that and anger. It no longer seemed as important. Komack realized that their survival depended on Kirk now, and further antagonism was useless and unwise. "What do you think is going to happen, Captain?" Komack knew the question could be interpreted as a plea for reassurance. Perhaps it was, but no one in Starfleet had more first contact experience than Kirk. His guess would be better than most people's considered opinion. "I have no idea." Komack felt his stomach fall when he heard the answer. "We wait, Admiral. Where there's life, there's a chance. I haven't given up at all. I'm just resting, waiting for an opportunity to make this work." "I still think you're an arrogant, insubordinate, son of a bitch, but I shouldn't have hit you." Kirk snorted. "Apologies accepted, by the way, all of that's true. My Mother could be a bitch when she wanted to. I learned how to not back down, or give up, from her. So, I consider being the son of a bitch, to be a distinct advantage." Kirk stood up. "I'm going to go check on my crew. Get some rest, Admiral." Komack watched Kirk walk away with two redshirts shadowing his every move. He still didn't like the man, but it was hard not the credit the fact that Kirk had balls. It was going to be a shame to bust them. Kirk needed a reintroduction to reality. If they got out of this mess, Komack had every intention of teaching him a lesson. This was no longer about envy or jealousy, he assured himself. Kirk needed to be disciplined because he threatened the very integrity and command structure of Starfleet. He was a loose cannon and Komack vowed to himself that he would personally put a plug in the bore of that particular cannon turned Starship Captain. "Captain, there's some movement near our people." Giotto spoke softly. Kirk came awake instantly and began to move towards the wall from where he had been sleeping near some of the younger and more frightened members of his crew. His calm presence in their midst had reassured all of them. They quietly shared their thoughts with him and watched him for signs of fear or uncertainty. Seeing none, their own fears had receded back into their closets, locked up like good little bogey men for awhile longer. Giotto walked briskly beside his Captain to where his man had been posted to watch for the very thing he just announced. When they reached the transparent barrier, one of the ancients, as the crew had started to call them, was working at the membrane that covered one of the crew, at the very end of the line of encased figures. They had no way of telling who it was. "Jim, what's up?" Kirk turned to see McCoy, Chekov, Sulu, and Uhura walk up behind him. "Taylor came and told us something is changing." Kirk turned and smiled a welcome. "It looks like they're opening one of our packages." The ancient one made a slow incision along one side. Then the other side of the membrane was cut, and it used its first set of arms to pull the membrane down. It revealed the quiet form of Ensign Mandy, one of the science techs. He seemed to be asleep. The creature reached out with two pairs of manipulators, and pulled him away from the surface. The Ensign's limp form came away without resistance. The creature pivoted and scuttled forward, straight towards the barrier and stood motionless in front of where the Federation humans were waiting. "Move back, everyone," Kirk said quietly. "It looks like we're getting our crew back. I don't want to make any moves that are scary to them, especially until everyone is unwrapped." They moved aside and the barrier dissolved instantly in front of the ancient one who marched ahead and put the young Ensign down on the floor, wheeled, and returned to the barrier which closed instantly behind it. McCoy rushed over to evaluate the Ensign. Everyone stood expectantly as the med scanner wthemred. "He is in some form of induced sleep. His respirations, heartbeat, metabolism, brain waves, are all markedly slowed. Otherwise, this kid is healthy. He has no evidence of trauma, or infection." McCoy turned and smiled up at his Captain. "I can get him back, once we get back to the ship. He is fine for now. One down, 16 to go." McCoy said hopefully. Kirk visibly relaxed. He returned to the barrier and watched as each member of his crew was released from their wrapping and brought into the area of comfortable captivity. Giotto thought he saw a slight gleam of water in his Captain's eyes when the 10th figure was unwrapped. It was Spock. They brought him in and laid him down next to the rest. Kirk came in stood quietly beside Spock's still form. McCoy fussed as the Vulcan was scanned. The doctor's smile was Kirk's answer. McCoy turned and watched as his Captain, his best friend, knelt down beside the Vulcan. McCoy knew there could be no great show, no open demonstration of attachment. There were too many people watching the Captain and his First Officer. Kirk reached out gently, touched Spock's cheek, and closed his eyes briefly. He rose and returned to the barrier without a backward glance. Ten down and seven more to go. McCoy coughed to clear the roughness that suddenly clogged his throat. Then, the doctor turned back to his patients. Scotty was number 14. When the ancients finished carrying all the crew in, each and every missing crewmember was accounted for. They all were still in the survival gear Kirk had mandated. Some even had their phasers in place. None of the miners had survived. The rest slept peacefully. "What do we do now, Bones?" Kirk asked hopefully. "You're asking me? The only things I have are the medical kits we carry on our bodies. I can't wake these folks up without the sick bay equipment. I'm a doctor, not a frigging miracle worker." "I thought those were the same thing," Uhura cthemped in. "Oh, now you're going to gang up on me," McCoy growled. "Spock's asleep so you're taking his lines?" Uhura laughed in response and kissed McCoy on the forehead. "Nope, that's better than Spock could ever do." McCoy smiled affectionately. "Bones, I..." Kirk's statement was interrupted by the approach of a large group of creatures to the barrier. The barrier dissolved, and several entered and walked quietly over to the sleeping form. "Exactly 17, Captain, one for each of ours," Sulu announced. The creatures scuttled over to the sleeping crew and stood over them. When all of them were in place, each sent a thin probe out of its thorax. "Shit, what is that?" McCoy blurted out. Each creature slowly sent a long, silvery tube down into the chest of each and every person. The tube pulsed briefly and they felt a humming sound in the air. Then, as quickly as it had started, it was over. They all wheeled in unison and left the way they had come. The medical team rushed over to inspect the results. "Jim," McCoy shouted happily, "these readings are all normal now. These folks are just in an old-fashioned deep sleep. In fact, they should all be waking up right about..." the Ensign sat up with the scream. "Shh, it's all right, son." McCoy assured him. "No, leave me alone. Call the ship, it's too dark to see anything." He screamed and tried to jump up to run. McCoy motioned a medic over and he held the struggling man down and spoke quietly to him until his disorientation ended and he finally gave them a look of recognition. "Ensign Mandy. This is Dr. McCoy. You're okay, son." The young man set up and looked around. When he saw Kirk's face, he broke into up unrestrained grin of relief. "I knew you'd come get us, Sir. I knew it." He crowed. Kirk blushed, "I am grateful for your belief, but we're not out of this yet." He reached over and pushed the young Ensign onto his back. "Rest, you've been through a lot. I'll want a full report later." "Yes, Sir," he said. He relaxed totally, closed his eyes, and went back to sleep. "Jim," McCoy interrupted his thoughts, "I think we need to put friends, or known faces with each of these folks, if we can. That way when they wake up, someone they know can help them make the transition. I don't have enough drugs to sedate all of them, and I'd rather use the old-fashioned stuff and keep my pharmaceuticals for later, in case they're really needed." "Agreed, Doctor." Kirk got up. "Jim, you better stay by Spock. As strong as he is, he could kill somebody if he wakes up disoriented. A word from you will instantly calm him." Kirk nodded and went to do the doctor's bidding. He screamed in fear and utter frustration. He could not get away. He would die alone, and away from all that he cherished. No, no, no...> He screamed again and sat up, one last chance was all he had to kill the creature that sought to destroy him in the dark. "Kroykah," someone screamed. Spock woke up. He felt fabric and cool human flesh under one hand. He opened his eyes and looked into the pain filled orbs of his Captain. Instantly, he released him and Kirk fell back holding his right arm to his chest. "Jim, what happened? You are hurt." Kirk gritted his teeth and tried not to moan. Spock had broken his right arm with his first grab. He had felt it snap like a toothpick. It took all he could to not writhe around on the floor. The sure knowledge that movement wouldn't help, was all that kept him still. "Damn," he gasped. He allowed himself that. Spock leapt to his side and pulled him back to lay against the Vulcan's chest. Long fingers felt along the arm and stopped over the area where the most pain was. "I broke your arm," he whispered. "Where is Dr. McCoy?" Kirk laughed and the movement made him gasp when it shook his damaged arm. It was so like Spock to wake up from being abducted by billion year old creatures, and worry about someone else before he took care of his own welfare. "I'll be okay, Spock. Just let me catch my breath." Kirk took long slow breaths to release the pain. "Let me," Spock reached over and briefly touched Kirk's meld points. Kirk's face relaxed. Spock opened his eyes and saw McCoy rushing across the room. The doctor sat down beside him and took a practiced look at Kirk's arm, then he scanned it. "Clean break, partially displaced, and I don't have a damn thing here to set it with." McCoy looked at Spock. "How are you, Spock?" "I am functional. How long have I been unconscious?" "Got me, but you went missing six days ago. We rescued you." McCoy grinned. Spock took a slow look at the scene of captivity and turned back to McCoy. "Indeed. Next time, perhaps it would be wiser to rescue me while you are still on the Enterprise." Kirk laughed and instantly regretted it again. "I was improvising, Spock. Wait till you see my next big idea." "I am breathless with anticipation." "Shit, here comes Komack," McCoy hissed. "Help me up, Spock." Kirk asked. "I don't want him to start on me again while I'm on the floor." "Jim," Spock protested. "Up, Spock." The Vulcan sighed and stood up. He lifted his Captain to his feet. He felt the human sway momentarily then steady to face Admiral Komack. Komack came and took a parade stance in front of Kirk. "What happened to you?" He asked impatiently. "I fell." Komack looked at him in disbelief. "You're lying, but I doubt that anyone over here will tell me the truth, so I'll accept that for now. We have everyone back. Now, I have a plan, Kirk. I suggest we use the phasers, which they so kindly gave back to us, and try to bust our way out of here." "That would be unwise, Admiral." Spock interrupted. "The atmosphere outside this bubble contains no breathable air. I remember after they brought us inside that I awoke prior to being put in the cocoon. I could not breathe. They did something rather quickly to take us to an area with an atmosphere." Komack's grimaced. "Are you able to get a reading?" He waited while Spock attempted to do so. "No, Admiral." "Damn, we are back to waiting. We're still nowhere." McCoy answered. "Actually, Admiral, we got all our people back, just like we planned." He watched Komack turn and angrily stalked away. Then he turned to his Captain. "You were awfully quiet." "I was trying not to moan. Damn, this hurts. Give me something, Bones, or else I'm going to not be worth much for much longer." "Damn, Jim, I'm sorry. I honestly forgot; you were being so calm about it." He leaned over and hissed some medication into Kirk. "Thanks, Bones. Almost as good as new." "Yeah, right. Go to sleep. I have to go scavenge up something to immobilize your arm, if I can. And Spock, try not to break anything else on him while I'm gone." McCoy stalked off before his nemesis/friend had a chance to make a retort. Kirk began to struggle back down to the ground and Spock immediately turned to aid him. "Welcome back, Spock. I missed you." Kirk whispered. The human Captain laid back and fell asleep instantly. With his crew back and no choices to make, he allowed himself to sleep. The Vulcan sat quietly beside him and meditated away the hours. The nightmare sense of darkness and doom flowed away from Spock and left behind simple relief. "Mr. Spock," Spock looked up into the face of Ensign Sally from security. "Lt. Giotto sent me to tell you that the creatures are moving towards the barrier." Spock nodded and got up to follow him over to the invisible wall. Strangely enough, he felt no discomfort when he looked at the creatures. In fact, he analyzed his reactions and impressions, and realized he actually felt comfortable looking at them. "I do not recall anything from my encounter after I was rendered unconscious, Mr. Giotto. However, I must say that I do not feel threatened by their current activities. Have they made any attempt to communicate with you during my captivity?" "No, Sir. They've just ignored us." "Have we made any attempt to communicate with them?" Spock continued. "Lt. Uhura and the communications department have tried, but they didn't get transported here with a lot of equipment, so I don't think they have gotten a response." "I see, Lieutenant. Stay here. I will go wake up the Captain. I suspect something new is about to occur, and we should prepare for it is best as we can." Kirk was still asleep when Spock returned to his side. McCoy had found something to immobilize the broken arm, but it was awkward and looked uncomfortable. McCoy had given Kirk the second pain shot before he could object. The second shot sent the exhausted man back into oblivion. "Captain," Spock touched him gently. He sat back as Kirk struggled up to consciousness. "There is something going on at the barrier. I think you should come see it." Spock helped him to his feet slowly. "Wait, Jim. Get your feet under you before you start walking." Kirk's eyes still seemed slightly glazed to Spock. The human's mental processing seemed slower than normal. "I'm okay, you can let go, Spock," he announced in a voice full of fatigue. "You are still visibly unsteady. Let me assist you, Jim. No one will think less of you if you allow yourself to be helped." Spock kept his voice quiet, so that only his Captain could hear. "No, I need to be okay. My crew doesn't need to see me hobbled. I'm fine. I'll get there on my own steam, Spock. Let me go." The Vulcan released him reluctantly and Kirk slowly led them towards the barrier. Kirk had built up speed and donned his full Captain persona, by the time he reached Giotto. "Captain," Giotto met them at the wall. They started moving that thing over towards the wall." He pointed to a large woven bundle that undulated slowly beneath its glistening surface. "Some of them have been against the wall, where our people were. They looked like they were working on the surface. See that over there," he pointed at the wall. "What?" Kirk stared at the surface. "Over there, Sir. Towards the center. See, they've hollowed out one of the chambers. You can see the back of it flashing a little." "I see it. Spock," Kirk turned to his friend, "do you remember anything at all from the time you were asleep; or anything about those chambers." "No. I just retain a sense of urgency, or perhaps frustration would be a better description. I have no images, no sense of language, nothing that connotes communication." "Damn." Kirk swore softly. "I'm going to get Wai and Komack and let them know what's going on. Keep me abreast of things, Giotto." "Yes, Sir." Security returned to their vigil. "Spock, you have any ideas?" "None that I am able to act on. Also, we do not have sufficient technology at our disposal currently to attempt anything innovative. I am presently at a loss for suggestions." Kirk shrugged, "Me too. Let's go talk to my favorite Admiral. Maybe this time he won't deck me." "Komack hit you?" "He knocked the mess out of me. I saw it coming, but I thought it would be better for him to hit me versus hitting him, so I let him. I admit that I was surprised he did it though." Kirk rubbed his jaw as he recalled the blow. "It hurt like hell." "I will not allow him to strike you again." Kirk could hear the anger in Spock's tone. "Stay out of this, Spock. Komack wants my stripes. He doesn't deserve yours, too." "Jim, I will not stay in Starfleet if you are not in it. What he does to you, he does to me." Spock's tone was a gentle reprimand. Kirk had the sense to look embarrassed. "You're right. I'm sorry I forgot that." He continued to walk. He no longer expected a response from Spock when he apologized. Vulcans did not require apologies, and Kirk no longer needed the acknowledgement of his effort. "There he is, oh joy." Kirk turned and grimaced before he took a deep breath and marched ahead. "Admiral Komack, something has come up." Komack turned, saw them, and stood up to meet them. "What?" Kirk told him succintly. Komack turned to stare at Spock. "You look recovered, Mr. Spock." "I am, Sir." "Do you remember any pertinent information from the period when the creatures had you? Or were you able to communicate with them telepathically?" "No, Sir. I was not allowed to touch them long enough to meld and there was no spontaneous communication possible. We did not seem to have any similarity of concepts with which to bridge the chasm. I got the impression of immense passages of time, and also a sense of many voices. That is all." "At least that's more than your Captain has given me. Kirk," he waved at him irritably, "take me to what you're talking about. Maybe, Wai or I can think of something." Komack stared at Kirk's arm. "That must have been a hard fall." "One of the best, Sir." Kirk smiled and pivoted to lead the way. Giotto rushed up to them, "Sir, a whole bunch of them have started stripping that bundle." When they got there, 10 creatures were clustered around him bundle and were eating off the covering. Slowly, a small soft glistening red form was revealed, that undulated beneath the probes and prehensile limbs of the larger creatures. Bit by bit, the entire larval form of a creature was revealed by the labors of the adults. "Yech," McCoy blurted, "that is one ugly baby." "Not to them, Doctor," Spock retorted. The infant struggled to stand weakly and began to drag itself across the floor blindly. The adults gathered around and alternated between prodding it and supporting it. "They're coming towards us," Giotto announced. "Phasers, Captain?" "No, let's see what they're up to. We're still at their mercy, and I know I would get really upset if you hurt my newborn." A bubble formed in the clear wall and the creatures walked through its sides into the interior the human enclave. The creatures went straight for the small circle of humans and one Vulcan. Giotto's hand edged towards his phaser. "No, Giotto, and signal all your men, under no circumstances are they to fire." A strange flicker crossed Kirk's face and he took a small device from his back and handed it to Spock. "No. 23." The Vulcan looked at him solemnly and nodded. The device would explode the warp core and generate a massive antimatter explosion that would destroy the creatures and leave space barren for parsecs. The clicks of hard keratinized heels hitting the smooth floor was loud and caused the air to vibrate softly. "Jim, I do not feel comfortable. We should move." "To where, Spock, and why? We have no place to go." Kirk smiled sadly. The creatures marched inexorably and now obviously, straight towards him. The lead creatures were three feet from them. They stopped and reared up slowly. Long arms lanced out through the air and writhed loosely. Their heads angled slowly from side to side. Kirk stepped forward with his one good arm held out. "I am Captain James T. Kirk of the United Federation of Planets. We come as friends." The foremost creature scuttled forward and slowly reached out and touched Kirk on the tip of his hand. "Ouch," Kirk yelled. "Jim, what is wrong?" Spock moved to his side "It bit me, or something." Kirk held out his hand in the small circle blood welled up from his palm. The creature wheeled inhumanly fast and return to its fellows. It sat as each creature came and briefly touched it's outstretched, blood tipped arm. McCoy reached Kirk right behind Spock and began scanning the wound. "It looks clean. I don't see any evidence that he injected you with any bacteria or virus. But it could be something the scanner won't pick up." McCoy snapped his scanner shut. "What the hell do you think that was all about?" "Lunch?" Kirk quipped. "You better hope he doesn't want seconds, Kirk." Komack came to stand in front of him. "What are you trying to do?" "I'm trying to communicate, Admiral, by any means necessary." He shook his hand. "Shoot. I think they may have given me a gift, Bones. My hand feels funny." The sound of hollow clicking made them turn. The creatures were moving again, this time in unison, and this time the infant walked steadily between them. "Jim," Spock began. "Move back, Spock. Don't try to stop whatever happens. Remember, you got back okay." "There was no infant in my experience. I will take your place." "I don't think we will have a choice." The creatures began to surround them on all sides and used their bulk to move McCoy, Spock, and Komack out of the circle. "Jim, no." Spock yelled as he was pushed back by massive arms. "Giotto, hold everyone back, stun them if you have to." Komack ordered sharply. Spock looked at Komack in momentary surprise. The creatures now totally encircled Kirk. A fine sheen of sweat dusted his face as he stood and watched the infant blindly lurch towards him. He took a step back, and ran into a creature that stood at his back. "The tingling is moving through my arm now," Kirk announced. "It feels like my arm is going to sleep. I feel a vibration that gets louder the closer the creatures get to me. I still can't make out any words or concept." The infant was directly at his feet now. It reared up on its lower thorax and sent its six arms forward to flail in the air. Spock held Kirk's eyes. The crew of the combined ships had gathered behind the security cordon set rapidly by Giotto. Uhura shouted. "Mr. Spock, we can't let them do this without trying something. They're going to hurt him." "At ease, Lieutenant," Komack shouted. "All the rest of you stand back and don't interfere. That's an order." The creature slowly climbed up its hind most legs until it was even with Kirk's chest. Then suddenly, the surface around the bottom set of arms scalloped back to reveal a thin biological stalk that waved and pulsed in its place. "The vibration is getting louder," Kirk announced. "Now the tingling covers the entire side of my body." Suddenly, one tendril shot out and impaled Kirk on his left thigh, the same site that was affected by the bite. Kirk looked surprised. "Jim," McCoy yelled. "It's okay, Bones. I didn't feel anything. They must have given me an anesthetic but..." the second tendril shot out of the other side. Kirk screamed. Spock moved forward, but three of Giotto's men stood in front of him. Ragged breathing followed the sound of a low moan. "Captain?" Spock called. He felt Jim's shields slam down to protect his Bondmate from the pain. "Captain?" He shouted began. "Damn," Kirk gasped out loud. "Sorry, that surprised me. The right side felt it all. That stings." Spock closed his eyes tightly and clinched his fist. They watched the middle set of arms telescope back, and again the tendrils waved in front of the creature. The second scream came when it pierced the right side of Kirk's abdomen. There was only silence when his chest was impaled. The adults moved toward the limp human. Behind the Vulcan, members of the crew sobbed quietly and some retched uncontrollably. "Spock, I still have life signs. They're slowing down, but I think it's controlled." McCoy didn't expect nor receive a response. The adults lifted the joined forms and laid them across the arms of the largest creature. Slowly, the orifice of the infant opened. An even finer probe lanced out and drove through the front of Kirk's skull and impaled his brain. A fierce shudder racked the human as the creature settle closer until he completely blanketed Kirk's face and his upper body. Finally, they both were still. McCoy dropped to his knees and began to hyperventilate. Spock grabbed him and pulled him up. "You will not disgrace our Captain. Stand up, Doctor," Spock whispered between clinched teeth and held McCoy up in a steel grip. The creature holding Kirk and the infant lowered itself slowly towards the floor. The crews of two captured ships and one lone Vulcan watched as the still form of their Captain was carried out through the barrier and directly towards the hollowed out area Giotto had noted earlier. Kirk was raised gently to the back of the hollow with the infant still attached. They watched the creatures seal them up into a biological tomb and were helpless to stop it. When the internment was complete, Spock turned and moved to walk towards his crew. McCoy followed slowly. Komack stood silently until Wai led him away. "Spock," the Vulcan meditated at the wall closest to Kirk. "Do you feel him?" The doctor sat down beside him and watched him come to full alertness. "I can sense he is alive, nothing more." "That's better than nothing." "Agreed." "Spock," McCoy bowed his head briefly. "I'm sorry about almost passing out. It overwhelmed me." The doctor shook his head slightly. "It was if they were doing it to me. I could feel it in my skull. I almost lost it." "Apologies are unnecessary, doctor. Your reaction was understandable." "Not to me. I'm a doctor; I've seen worse and never hit the ground like that. It was because it was Jim. I'm losing my objectivity in my old age." "You have never been objective, Doctor. That is not your way. He is your closest friend, and you were forced to stand by helplessly while he was harmed in a manner that may permanently destroy the part of him you value the most, his brain, perhaps his soul. As I have stated, your reaction was understandable." "Spock, you think we'll get out of this?" "I do not know, but Jim believed we would, and I trust his belief." McCoy sighed. "Wake me up if something happens." He stretched out on the floor. "As you wish." Spock closed his eyes and returned to his meditation. "Nyota, are you okay?" Sulu whispered into her ear. They were lying side-by-side. "No, I'm not." "Me neither," he admitted. "You think he still is alive?" "Spock is alive and conscious." "Yes, you've got a point." He pulled her closer and gave her a hug. "We've been in worse fixes than this and we're still here." "Name one." "I can't think of one, but I'm sure we have." He shook her gently. "How about the guardian mission. Non-existence is worse, isn't it?" "You didn't have time to be afraid, Rue. You didn't exist, and we were only on the planet a short time before they came back through the guardian. No, I definitely call days of two crews being held in a 10 billion year old ship, by aliens I can't communicate with, as being the number one worst time of my life." Her shoulders shook, and quiet sobs escaped her lips. "Please, don't cry, Nyota. I hate it when you cry." He held her tighter. "The Captain and Mr. Spock will get us out of this, you'll see. We'll be okay." "I'm afraid, for Jim, for us, and for Spock. I want to go home." "Earth?" Sulu asked incredulously. "No, you nut, the ship." She laughed and wiped at her face. "Oh," he smiled. "Let's have a party when we get home. I'll cook tandori chicken if you do that noodle dish of yours." "No, I don't want noodles. I want some poi." "I hate poi." Sulu grimaced. "How about we compromise and you fix some tarasomalata. "Oh, some compromise, but that would taste great on some garlic bread." "Maybe we can get Chekov to cook something." Sulu suggested. "He's a horrible cook." Nyota protested. "Okay, how about he has to bring the cake?" "I like that. What should Scotty bring" They both turned and shouted together, "the booze." Uhura was now wholly engrossed. "McCoy can make some barbecued pork. Spock can do his vegetable stew, and Jim can make the mustard vegetable he did for us once, remember? "Yes. Damn, that was good." Sulu hugged her again. "You'll see, when we get home, will have the best party ever." "Thanks, Rue," she whispered. "Don't mention it, Nyota; we're family." McCoy awoke eight hours later to find Spock still seated in the exact same spot. "Anything?" "No." "How long have I been asleep?" "Eight hours, fifteen minutes, 32 seconds." "Can't you just say, about eight hours?" "No." "I will go get you some food. The fresher is to your left, 40 paces." "I found it while you slept. I do not require nourishment, Doctor." "I require you to have some. You don't do Jim, or the crew, or any body any good by fasting. You still need to build up from the days they had you. I'm getting you something, and you're going to eat it." "As you wish." "Spock, don't do that." "What, Doctor?" "Don't agree with me so easily; it scares me." Silently, Spock looked up with one eyebrow raised. "Shit, I'll be back." Scotty and Wai were at the food station when he arrived. "Dr. McCoy," Scotty greeted him. "Scotty, Captain Wai. Scotty, do you have anything I can use to carry some food back to Spock?" "Aye, Doctor. I have just the thing. I'll be right back." McCoy leaned heavily over the metal mushroom. "This sucks." Wai snorted. "That's putting it nicely. You think Kirk is still alive?" "Spock does." "I see. I don't pretend to understand what the two of them are to each other, but I admit, I'm jealous." "What in the hell are you talking about?" "McCoy, you see my First Officer anywhere near me?" "No, but..." "No buts. He's over there somewhere twiddling his thumbs. He does what he's told, and never risks being wrong. Kirk has a First Officer who would die for him. I mean, literally. Jim never turns around to see where Spock is. He always knows. He always knows what Spock thinks, because they are painfully honest with each other. You've been on the Enterprise so long; you've forgotten real life. I live in the real world. My First won't die for me. My First won't keep a vigil at my side. My First is someone I have to send somebody to find. My First won't tell me no. I've heard Spock say no to Jim and mean it. You have no idea how important that is to a commander." "I'm sorry, Wai. I never really considered it before." "You never had to." He took deep breath. "Watch out for Komack. He hates James Tiberius Kirk. Jim makes him feel powerless and insignificant, and that makes him mad." "I know." "If you need my help, you have it. I know James Kirk saved my crew, even if Komack is too much of an idiot to admit it. If I had more sense, or a First Officer who said no, I would never have risked it like I did. I was stupid." "You were following orders." "I was stupid and so were the orders." "What do you want me to say, Captain?" "Nothing. Take care of them, Doctor. They're the finest team we'll ever see." "I'll do my best." "That's all any of us can ever do. Now, let me go look for my First Officer. At least you know where yours is. Shit, even I know where yours is." "I'll send someone to get you if anything changes." "No doubt." McCoy watched him walk away. He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to Scotty's smiling face. "Here you are, Leonard. A fully collapsible bowl and utensils set, courtesy of Lt. Griffith, engineer, and former Girl Scout. McCoy laughed. "How much of that did you catch?" "Enough." "Makes me feel truly blessed." "As you should, my friend. For we are." "How are you dealing with what they did to you, Scotty? We haven't had a chance to talk since you woke up." "I'll do. It was pretty damn frightening in the tunnel, and I'm going to the gym as soon as we get back to the ship. By the time they caught up with me, I was almost begging them to kill me, it hurt so much to breathe." Scotty shook his head. "I'm really out of shape." "Scotty, it couldn't have been that bad. You passed your last physical." "Do you remember now, who fixed your medical scanner before my last physical?" "You didn't!" "Did. An engineer has to be inventive, and I had been sitting on my rump reading journals." "It serves you right, then. I'm surrounded by confidence men and tricksters." "Oh, tosh, Laddy, is nae quite tha' bad. Now, you go on and take this to Spock so he can eat up and does nae pass out from the hunger. We all are knowin' tha' he will nae eat when the lad tis in danger." "How did we ever get to this point, Scotty?" "Pure dumb luck, Leonard, and I thank all the saints each and every day." "We're all crazy." "Aye." The engineer nodded in agreement. "How long Spock?" McCoy asked. "63.5 hours." "Nothing?" "At all." "Shit." "Indeed." "How long, Spock?" Scotty asked. "86.7 hours." "Och, 'tis more than I care for." "Agreed." "How much more of this shit do we have to put up with?" Komack sputtered. "Unknown, Admiral. I have insufficient information on which to render a conclusion." "We should have blasted them." "We would have died, Admiral. If that was your goal, then you are correct." "This is worse." "This, Admiral, still has us alive and with a chance to survive." "We still should have blasted their ass." The Vulcan did not respond. Spock sat with Uhura discussing language and possible translations of vibrations. "Sir," Ensign Vakash stood in front of him, "they are working on the Captain. It looks like they're opening up the wall again." Spock stood up so fast it startled the young Ensign. "Do you want me to inform Admiral Komack?" Spock stopped and turned briefly. "No, get Dr. McCoy and no one else." "Yes, Sir." When Spock arrived, half of the covering had already been removed. The "infant" had grown to 3/4 of the adult size during its cocooning. Spock felt nauseous and fought for control. The thought of how the creature grew, and at whose expense, made him clinch his fists tightly to hold back the fear. He could see no sign of Kirk. He could not sense any thoughts from his T'hy'la. The creature's bulk completely covered Jim and it's mind blanketed Jim's own. McCoy came up beside him. "That baby is four times the size of before." "Approximately 6.32 times, to be more precise." McCoy looked at Spock. Spock looked greener than usual, and he stood rigidly with dark circles ringing his eyes. "Have you felt anything at all?" "Nothing." "That new one is a different color. He has little blazes of gold, blue, and green running through his thorax." The older adults moved towards the infant, and pulled it away from the cocoon. With it, came the unconscious form of James T. Kirk. Spock leapt forward, and touched the barrier. They placed the joined forms on the floor and one adult scuttled forward and sunk a feeler into the still body of the youngster. It began to stir fitfully. Each of its movements shifted the unresponsive human pinned underneath it. "Mr. Giotto," Spock called. "Send someone for Admiral Komack and Captain Wai." "Yes, Sir." The creature's shell began to glow softly and shimmer with pearlescence. Slowly, it extended its lower most limbs until they rested on the floor. It began to pull back, first the probe driven into Kirk's skull, then the two in his chest, next the two in his abdomen, and finally, the two in his upper thighs. The creature scuttled back unsteadily, fell briefly on the floor, before two adults levered it upright. It remained still for long minutes. Spock turned to meet Komack's approach. "They have removed the creature from the Captain. It has matured at an accelerated rate and now approaches adult size." "Is Kirk still alive?" "At present." "Admiral, Mr. Spock," Giotto called. "They are lifting the Captain and moving this way." Spock whipped around to see the smallest, youngest creature, lift his T'hy'la and carry him towards the barrier. It melted in front their small group of 10, and the creatures flowed through unerringly towards Spock. The Vulcan stood and waited. He tried to breathe slowly, while he waited to see if the limp form coming towards him would still have enough of the man inside of it to be called James Kirk. The creatures came towards him and paused. The older ones lowered themselves to the floor and the young one moved slowly towards him until Spock could feel the coolness that radiated off the creature. Then he could see the fine trickle of blood that dripped from the neat circle carved out in the center of his T'hy'la's head. The chest was silent. There was no movement and no sign of life. The young one pushed his arms forward until it was obvious he was handing Kirk to Spock. Spock stepped forward and carefully gathered the cool, still form into his arms. He could feel...nothing. He turned around and walked over to where McCoy stood and lowered his Captain to the floor. McCoy scanned Kirk and looked up. His eyes were filled with tears. "Very faint life signs and minimal brain activity. This is not like the readings we got on you. He's dying." Spock felt his soul reel. He slowly began to reach for the final meld. He hoped he was not too late. He would hold Jim's Katra until they reached Vulcan, where they could both go on...together. "No." A dry rustle assailed their ears. Spock turned to look at the youngling in astonishment. "He does not die. He lives on. He gives talk to us. We talk to you now." The creature scuttled forward. "You are Spock. I he you do share all. This is our way. For give us kill you. We did not know they not food. they not have tools. they stock to feed we think. We hunger. We feed. For give us." Spock felt his soul surge up again to new heights. They had been reprieved...yet again. He jumped up and rapidly approached the youngling. "You learned our language from our Captain. If that is so, you also know we came in peace, not as enemies. Will you help Kirk and return us all to our ship?" "We learn all from tastes of Kirk. His taste strong in all minds of o thers we take. All call to Kirk in tastes. one share with all. We all know you. so long a lone. Ne ver have we know others here. We a lone since your stars are born. We see die our own stars. We wait so long for some to find us. Joy, so much joy we are. O thers of us out in stars. Now we find o thers." Komack stepped up. "You were waiting for someone to come to do what? Why did you destroy our ship if all you wanted was contact?" The creature pivoted its head towards Komack. "Ko mack you are Not friend Kirk You sig nal re flect our You de stroy own self not us Do not fear us Ko mack we have joy at know more all We old past know To kill waste joy of life hold joy." McCoy step forward and barked out impatiently. "Can you help Kirk, yes or no?" "Mc Coy he," the youngling stepped forward and reached out his feeler to gently stroke the doctor's face. "Much joy you Kirk feels much joy you Kirk hurt you hurt Will wake." He scuttled over and slowly lowered a probe into the center of Kirk's body, withdrew it and sat quietly next to the supine figure to await the awakening. A shuddering breath racked the human's body, followed by yet another, until color and warmth slowly suffused the still form. Spock knelt next to him...and waited. The creature gently reached out a long middle arm and stroked the Vulcan's hair. "Yes you are life to us so much joy for you Spock you are in our tastes one we are." Kirk's eyes shot open and he bolted forward with a dry scream. Spock restrained him gently but forcefully. Suddenly a string of completely unintelligible syllables flowed out of the human's mouth, and he grabbed for the Vulcan beside him. "Kirk, awake you are. Safe you are." He reached forward and again pricked Kirk's arm quickly. The human's breathing calmed and recognition slowly returned to his eyes. "Spock," he croaked. "I am here." Spock squeezed Kirk's shoulders gently and was rewarded with an exhausted but joyful smile. Kirk fell back and released his one-handed hold on the Vulcan's arm. The creature leaned towards Kirk with a youthful enthusiasm. "Kirk a wake you are as pro mise home you are with joy wish you what now?" James Kirk saw the creature and recognized the child he had raised in the deepest part of his mind where they had dwelt outside of time. The sight held no fear for him: he saw nothing that was alien. Kirk reached weakly up and touched the head of the youth. Kirk gasped weakly and smiled gently. "Send us home to our ships." The creature shot out a tendril and stroked the human's cheek, slowly. It began to hum a wordless song. It leaned forward and Kirk hugged it, weakly. "I'm not mad at you, Alpha, I just want to go home." Kirk whispered. "Not an gry joy me?" "Not angry much joy you. Friends, Alpha, for ever, just like we said in the o ther place." "Friends for ever. Home as you wish Kirk." Suddenly, they were back on the Enterprise. Spock was still holding Kirk when the bridge materialized around them. The forward viewscreen showed that they were on the inside of the Dyson sphere, the size of a world. Their starship floated like an insignificant speck in its center. The youngling still knelt beside Kirk. "You are home. Will stay you? We has much to learn of this stars and much we can teach you." Kirk nodded. "We will stay for awhile," Spock answered for him. "What can we call you?" "You me call Al pha too. I be gin our new life." "Spock, I want to get up." Kirk's voice was a faint whisper. "No, Jim," McCoy came off the lift. "You stay put. I brought the biocart with me. They drained you almost to the last drop to grow that kid, and your arm is still fractured. You come with me, and leave the kid to Spock and Admiral Komack. Where the hell is he anyway? And for that fact where is Wai and his crew? I only saw our folks in the halls." "We make well ships and send Ko mack back with o thers. You not joys him. Was best. "I'll be damned. You're pretty useful, kid." "Thank you, Bones." McCoy laughed in astonishment. "Now he has a 10 billion year old race calling me that." He turned his mind immediately back to his patient. "Spock, help me get Jim on the gurney. I want to get him down to Sickbay fast." "Bones..." a weak voice started to protest as the Vulcan swiftly lifted him. "Shut up, Captain." McCoy strapped him down and motioned to his two techs. "Come on, while we have him locked in." They ran for the lift. "Spoccckkkk!" Kirk yelled weakly from the moving biocart. "Yes, Captain, I will handle everything and bring you up to date when you are better." Uhura giggled at the muffled curses coming from the lift as the door closed. A sound pulled her back to her board. "Mr. Spock, Admiral Komack is signaling us." Uhura announced. "Put him on the screen, Lieutenant." Komack's face came on screen. "Are all your crew returned?" "Yes, Sir." "Kirk okay?" "Yes, Sir." "Where is he?" "In Dr. McCoy's able hands, Sir." "Right." He frowned and looked as if he wanted to say something else, then changed his mind. "We are beaming over to meet with the creature. Maybe we can work out a technical and cultural exchange program." "I will notify the transporter room to await your signal, Sir." "Komack, out." "No joy," Alpha stated. "You are correct." Spock agreed. ------------------------------------------- "Jim," Spock sat down on the bedside of the Biobed. The human turned, opened his eyes, and smiled. "Hello." "Indeed, how are you feeling?" "My head hurts, but not as much as when I couldn't feel you inside. I'm tired and weaker than normal. Other than that I'm ready to report for duty and I'm ready to get rid of that ear wax problem you have." He reached his hands for Spock's face. "Meld with me, Spock." "I cannot. Dr. McCoy assured me that if he saw the slightest readings from the Biobed to indicate a meld, he would inject me with cordrazine. I do not like cordrazine." Kirk looked crestfallen. Spock allowed a slight smile to indicate his amusement. "Jim, Starship Captains and grown men do not pout. But, I can do less than a full meld without setting off the alarms." He reached out and lightly touched Kirk on his meld points until they both sighed in contentment and opened their eyes. "You felt all of that?" Kirk whispered. The Vulcan nodded solemnly. "I was only able to maintain my composure with deep meditation. I never want to see anything similar happen to you again. You risk too much, again and again. One day, neither random chance, nor skill, nor The Chosen's intervention, will be in our favor." Kirk smiled. "I'm the Chosen's Hope, nothing is random, especially you. Anyway, I know you didn't expect me to leave you and the rest of my crew in there and turn tail and run. If it wasn't for Komack, I would've gotten you back sooner." "Did it ever cross your mind that you might have been destroyed and that Komack might have been correct?" "Not once." His smile was smug, a trifle too smug for Spock. "Jim, you are prevaricating. I do not require a touch or a meld to tell any longer. Also, I will remind you that you are the Chosen's Hope, not an immortal." "As far as we know. If I am, so are you now." "Hmm," raised an eyebrow, " an eternity of pulling you out of trouble. What bliss." Kirk chuckled. "How is our guest doing?" "He is brilliant, inordinately curious, has your sense of humor, and likes to needle Komack." "Ah, sweet revenge." Kirk laughed and shook his fist in the air. "We got him just where we want him. He can't be an asshole to 10 billion year old visitors." "Undoubtedly, he can locate a path to that specific goal if he so desires. Komack has been in continuous contact with Nogura since we arrived back on the ship. He brought you up on charges one hour after he was beamed back onto the Excalibur." "Let me guess, the charges were dropped as soon as Nogura realized what a treasure trove of knowledge we can get from Alpha and his people. I bet Wai appended a report to Komack's, that detailed a physical assault on a Captain and the total disregard of Starfleet mandates by Komack. It also detailed how Komack's stupidity, sorry, error in judgement, killed 73 crewmen from the Excalibur." "Precisely. Jim, one day you will overestimate your worth to Starfleet." "Undoubtedly, but I probably won't survive the misstep." "I do not enjoy this particular topic of conversation. I brought the chess set. McCoy gave me his permission to challenge you to a game. He thought you were going to die, so he is being unusually overprotective. We can only play three games." "Spock, help me get out of here. He won't let me out of the bed to pee and I have tubes in almost every orifice. It's embarrassing." "Next time, endeavor to not awaken sleeping civilizations, get two crews kidnapped, and get yourself cocooned with an alien baby." "I'll try." He reached out and touched Spock's hand softly. "What would I do without you to keep me out of trouble?" Spock quirked one eyebrow and tilted his head in a thoughtful pose. "Destroy the space-time continuum and change the course of mighty rivers?" Jim began to laugh. "Bend steel with my bare hands." "Who, under the guise of James T. Kirk, mild-mannered Captain for the Federation," Spock continued. "Stop," Jim was laughing so hard he reached up to grab his head. "This is making my head hurt. Oh, please." "I have gold Kryptonite." Spock deadpanned. He reached over and touched Jim's meld point lightly. The human's face relaxed instantly. "Damn, you're good." "All true." Spock agreed, pulled up the table, and put the chessboard on it. They quietly set up the pieces. "Prepare to lose." Jim snorted. He lost the first game. He won the next one; the tthemd was a draw. THE END 72 57