Title: Dear Sam 27 Author: Istannor Series: TOS Part: 1/1 Rating: [PG13] Codes: Summary: This Log discusses the Enterprise's interaction with Dr. Roger Corby. 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. Captain James T. Kirk USS Enterprise NCC-1701 C/O Starfleet Operations Earth Central STARFLEET DIPLOMATIC COURIER, CODED SECURE George Samuel Kirk Jr. Bioagricultural Industries, Kirk Inc Deneva Central 17 Junque St. Deneva, UFP Dear Sam, I almost blew it yesterday, Sam. Nobody is asking too many questions about what happened down on the planet surface. It was pretty ugly. It was supposed be a simple mission to see what happened to Dr. Roger Corby. He'd been missing for quite some time. Christine Chapel, our nurse, was his fiancé. In fact, it turns out that our humble nurse was a research biologist. She left Earth to look for Roger Corby and was using us to find him. That's a lot of love to have for one person. I have never felt that way about anybody. I wonder how it feels. One day, I'd like to know. It didn't go well, Sam and that's an understatement. Corby kept insisting that I come down alone with Christine and she swore he was Roger Corby. "I'd know his voice anywhere," Yeah, right. It didn't feel right, I didn't like it and I still went down alone with her. I am a dunce. When we got down to the planet surface, there was no one to meet us. I didn't like that, so I called for two security guards to come down. I stationed them at the opening to the caves. They're both dead now. One had his neck snapped by a giant android and the other one was thrown down a bottomless pit. I...God, I hate this part. There was no reason for them to die. Senseless. I should've taken a whole squad down. I should've put up security grids.I should've done something better than I did. Now I have to tell two families that their sons and brothers are dead. Neither one was married, no kids. I can never tell if that is bad or good. Dad died, but at least he left us behind to carry on. Their future died in a cave on a rock of a frigging planet.I'm sorry. You don't need to hear this. I already finished the letters to their families. I knew both of them pretty well. They had been on the ship from Pike's day. Good men, but that didn't keep them from dying. How were they supposed to hear an android sneak up on them? The damn thing was absolutely silent. I couldn't hear a thing when he moved. I could feel him though. He radiated a small electromagnetic field that I could sense as heat, but they wouldn't be able to feel that. They died because I wasn't careful enough. I have lost too many of my crew already. I keep a copy of every letter I send back to families to let them know that their son/daughter/husband/wife/lover, won't be coming home. It's deadly in space and no matter what I do, my people keep getting killed. Sam, I make every planetfall with them. Why does it keep being them and not me? Damn. Anyway, Roger Corby was no longer alive when we got there. He thought he was, but he was wrong. I've known people like that. I've known people who thought they were alive, but they were wrong. I can't tell you the specifics, because most of the information is still classified. I'm sure you'll be able to get the particulars from your sources anyway. It doesn't matter. He's definitely dead now, along with everybody else who was down on the planet when I arrived. Do you know what else died along with Roger Corby? Christine Chapel's hopes. It was a painful death. I really feel for her, but I will kill her hopes again and again, if I have to. There was this big android down on the planet. He tried to kill me at least three times. Damn thing threw me up against a wall. He cracked a few of my ribs in my back, but I didn't have time to worry about that. I just forgot about it until I got back to the ship. Then he ended up almost tossing me down a bottomless pit. I was holding onto the side of a wall by one hand and trying to ignore the pain in my ribs. I kept staring at him because it was hard for me to believe that I was going to die. It didn't feel like I should die. I didn't want to die. I was really pissed off that he had gotten the upper hand on me. Fortunately, Christine had run after us through the tunnels and she caught up with us just in time. She called out to him and made him pull me back up. He had been programmed to follow her orders. You can't imagine how grateful I was for that. I had maneuvered Corby into doing it, but I didn't know it was going to save my ass. She gets a lot of points from me for being brave enough to chase an android and make him back down. I can tell you this. Corby sent another android up to the Enterprise who looked like me. While the android was being programmed, it felt like someone was tearing out my soul. I knew what Corby wanted to do. He wanted my ship, my crew, and my power. Nobody gets those things but me, nobody, Sam. I wasn't sure what I could do to stop it, but I knew I had to do something. Suddenly, I knew. It was so strange, Sam. The answer just floated up in my head with that little voice I told you about. I sort of let myself relax the barriers a little and I let the Beast out to play. He hates everyone, so the next trick wasn't too hard. I convinced myself that I hated Spock and his "half breed interference". That hate ended up being programmed into the android and when he saw Spock the first time, the imposter yelled at Spock: "Mr. Spock, I'm tired of your half-breed interference." Command training and Need came in handy, or maybe it was just self hypnosis and I imagined the Beast. Yeah, and I imagined him on Tarsus too. Right. Well, we both know that nothing is further from the truth. Spock asked me about it later and we had a long talk. I told him I needed to grab on to something so atypical, he would know right away that he was dealing with a fake. Spock knows he's my friend. If nothing else is certain in this universe, he can count on me being his friend. I won't ever willingly give that up. Who knew that my friendship with a Vulcan, would save my ship and my life? I just wish that our friendship had saved the lives of my two crewmen. Well enough of that. On to other things. I already talked to Spock about us. He seems to have absorbed what I told him so far. He's very good for me, Sam. I don't feel a need to protect him from me. When I'm angry, I'm angry; when I'm sad, I'm sad; when I'm teasing him, he just lifts his eyebrow. He accepts it all. We're already past me calling him a half-breed. I'm not sure what it would take to make him really mad at me, but I don't ever want to find out. I talked to Mom. She wants to know what you want to do about the your Stock options. She is pulling the family money out of any company that does business with Microhard, since they have admitted to dealing with Orions for pirated software. Are you in or out? I got out of Microhard a long time ago, because the owner reminds me of a eugenics tyrant. How long will the older boys be off planet? Who is checking up on them? When was the last time Jean saw them? You need to get the boys ready, Sam. I don't know how much longer either of us has, and David is a lost cause. Jean says Carol will not allow her to interact with him, and without Jean he will not learn any restraint. I dread to think what he may do in the future, but I don't have any way to stop it, short of kidnapping him, and I won't do that to them. He is my only acknowledged progeny and it doesn't mean a thing. He still thinks I'm just his mother's old boyfriend. When I die, I doubt that anyone will care but the family, Bones, and maybe Spock. I can live with that, I guess; it's not like I'll have any choice. I almost bought it this time. I may not be so lucky next time. Be ready. I'm sorry to end on a morbid note, but we both have to be realistic. I think I'll arrange some extra leave for Christine. It's hard losing a loved one,twice.Hopefully she can find someone else to love, maybe someone on board, as long as it's not me. Love, Jim January 25, 2000 Page 4