Timeline: A few month after Into Darkness

A/N: Haven't got a beta yet. Volunteers? Could use some cheerleading as well as constructive criticism. English is not my first language and this is my first attempt in this Fandom.

Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine. I just borrow and intend to give them back unharmed... mostly.

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major lifts
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen

Prolog

Private Log, James T. Kirk. Stardate 2259.79

'When I was a kid my mom used to tell me my father knew exactly what he was doing when he stayed on board of that ship. That he did it for us. That he just wanted to do the right thing by saving the lives of people he cared for. But he couldn't fool me. He took the easy way out. A selfish way. Not thinking about the consequences for those who had to live with them.

Now look at me. I have made the same decision. The only difference is that I've lived to see the consequences.'

Interlude I

Planet H-3030, Facility of unknown Purpose

The building stood its guard, lonely and obstinate. It refused to bend, not yet. The signs of life inside not yet completely gone. There were still traces of personal belongings on the tables and in the dressers. Clothes and books, pencils and dishes. Some properly tucked away in night tables and dressers, some having fallen and scattered on the floor. Monitors beeping with an endless stream of incoming data with no one left for interpretation. Needles constantly spiking into dangerous territory and then calming down.

A piercing, screeching sound echoed through the empty hallways, bouncing of the walls like a restless sentinel searching for fearful souls hiding from the inevitable. It combed through every corner, every fissure in the wall, wiggled its way through gaps and holes and when it left the bricks and stones holding the building together it was carried off into the loneliness of the vast planet. The wind took the sound away, scattered the remains into the emptiness and left nothing behind but a hull of metal and stone. An abandoned building on an abandoned planet. A grave on a grave.

Another sound rolled over the area, deeper and louder. More like a rumbling. Like the planet was gritting its teeth.

And yet another sound, coming from inside the building again. A scream of defiance formed by vocal chords that expressed alarm and shock and disbelief. But the source of the sound seemed not within physical reach. It came from the air itself. Air that was cackling and shifting and moving like waves in a quiet lake in which an invisible stone had been tossed.

Then the rumbling stopped and the sound died away while the planet kept turning and turning and its core kept pulsing in tune with the angry red lights in the main labs control station. The beeping the only evidence of the failed experiment that had apparently cost the lives of seven souls.

/Interlude/

Chapter 1

Stardate 2262.11

"Whoever told me as a kid that monsters don't exist… now I can prove them wrong," McCoy murmured and made a grunting sound as Jim nudged him with his elbow into his side to shut him up. Sharply. McCoy quickly looked up, smiled widely and waved his hand almost comically at the leaving group of alien creatures.

Planet M-0991, to the inhabitants known as Snov'rek, was the home of the Kaestrians, a species that couldn't have been less like humans. Their skeletal features – respectively two long arms and legs with no less than three joints on every limb – looked terrifying. Their heads were long and reminded Jim of starving horses whereas their wide mouths with rows and rows of long teeth showed alarming similarity with the long gone Terran species of sharks. They had started negotiations about trading relationships a week ago and Jim wished for nothing more than to finish this mission, get back on his ship and leave this hellish planet and its visually off-putting residents. Admittedly, contrary to their looks the Kaestrians were one hell of a pompous race, who valued correctness, courtesy and the right choice of words. Ugly Vulcans, as McCoy had captioned. Appropriately so, Jim had to admit.

Now, after many hours of talking and walking on eggshells the first steps had been done to initiate diplomatic relationship, which meant for Jim and his Crew that their work was done.

They had said their goodbyes, had bowed and repeated the flowery phrases that were expected until their mouths dried out and their backs ached and had watched the three representatives get up and leave. Their movements were erratic and disturbing to watch. Their long arms were being used to stabilize their crooked torsos, which made them look even more appalling.

"For your own good, I hope their hearing isn't as advanced as their manners," Jim murmured under his breath as one of them turned around to look at them from the distance, eyeing them for a moment before bowing one last time, their gangly arms punting into the soft ground at the attempt to balance their heavy heads, making them look like a genetically failed experiment to create a mixture of spiders and white sharks.

"It seems, that is the case, Captain," Spock announced and Jim let out his breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "It also seems our efforts have been successful and might yield satisfying result for medium-term contracts the federation will benefit from."

"Benefits from what exactly? More fuel for nightmares?" McCoy huffed.

"I do not understand."

Jim didn't need to look at his Second in Command to see the raised eyebrow and tried to ignore the irritating talk of the two men who were now following him out of the building in the opposite directions of their hosts. It really was time to leave… and sleep with the lights on for the next few nights.

"These Kaestrians are creeping me out."

"Creeping you out?" Spock asked in a questioning tone.

"Yes, creepy. As in appalling, horrific, fright inducing, making my skin crawl and my limbs go numb. You know: creepy."

"I do not understand how the appearance of another life form can cause this kind of physical reaction other than hormonally conditioned reactions to the other sex that lead to the increase of blood supply in specific areas of the human organism."

"Did you just describe a boner, Spock?" McCoy asked, half incredulous, half disgusted, and Jim almost ripped his diagraphm trying not to burst in laughter. He was too tired for this kind of conversation. "Nevermind," McCoy added hastily as Spock was about to reply.

Jim finally stepped out of the building. Immediately his gaze wandered into the brown-ish dirty sky where he knew the Enterprise was awaiting them. He reached for his communicator. "Jim to Enterprise. Do you read?"

"Keptin," A friendly voice greeted him. "Checkov speaking. Can ve beam you on board, Sir?"

"Positiv. Three persons to the Enterprise."

A second later he blinked to adjust his eyes to the clean and bright interior of the transporter room.

"It's the unknown, the unexplainable, Spock." McCoy went on. "It's about being unable to scientifically predict physical or behavioral reactions. Unfamiliarity."

"And disfigurement as the Kaestrians are neither unpredictable nor abnormal in their physical characteristics."

"Well, that is debatable." McCoy exclaimed. "But no. Yes. Maybe. It's hard to explain. It's some kind of …" McCoy paused, thinking hard about the next words. "…externally grounded emotional compromise."

"That does not make sense."

"Spock is right," Jim chimed in, having kept himself out of the discussion since he had no intention whatsoever to admit that he, too, was seriously distressed by their new allies. "That doesn't make sense, Bones."

"Fine, Jim. I give up." The doctor threw his hands in to the air defensively. "Your turn. I wanna hear you explain our emotionally challenged Vulcan the concept of the heebie-jeebies."

"It's… complicated," he began, trying really hard to find a way to get out of this.

"Lieutenant Uhura to Captain Kirk."

Thank God.

With a shrug of his shoulder and an apologetic glance to McCoy – which the latter registered with a roll of his eyes – Jim opened his communicator, already steering into another direction.

"Uhura, I'm already on my way to the Bridge. What is it?"

Behind him, he could hear McCoy spluttering something about mandatory medical check-up, temporary quarantine and immunization shots being standard procedure after away missions and that even "the goddamned Captain had no right to talk his way out of".

"Incoming message from Starfleet Command."

"That's good… good!" Jim said, hoping not to sound too delighted. "As long as the next mission destination is warm and orbits at least two suns… Humanoid creatures preferred." Purposefully he strode to the next elevator accompanied by McCoys indignant call of "Jim!"

"Sorry, Bones. Sounds really urgent."

The lift doors closed with a swooosh but not before he heard Spock ask one last question that obviously had him distracted for the last few minutes.

"Doctor McCoy, I would appreciate one last clarification. What exactly is the anatomical meaning of a boner?"

"Oh, for the love of…!"

Jim could only hope the lift doors were soundproof enough to keep his fits of laughter inside the cabin. Bones would be seriously pissed. He was an awful friend.