Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek.

Chapter One:

Stardate: 2258.177

"That should make a good specimen," Jim nods to Sulu, who's holding up what Jim could only describe as a smallish pink mammal with a horn.

If it wasn't for the fact the animal looked more like a dog than a horse, he would have said it looked like a miniature unicorn.

"The temperature is starting to drop," Sulu said, as he looks around.

"Yeah," Jim agrees, shivering slightly. "At night it gets down to a hundred and twenty degrees below zero… And I ain't planning on hanging around to see if that's true."

"That's nippy," Sulu looks down at the animal in his arms, it didn't look like it could withstand such cold temperatures.

A crash near by caught both Jim's and Sulu's attention and Jim runs towards where the sound had Coe from. He finds Lieutenant Fisher on the ground, groaning slightly in pain.

"What happened?" Jim asks, offering Fisher a hand.

"I fell off that bank, sir," Fisher points up to the bank before accepting Jim's hand. "And cut my hand."

"Let's see it," Jim demands, once he's pulled Fisher to his feet.

The cut didn't look like much at first glance, but it was deep.

"Get back to the ship," Jim orders. "Report to Sickbay."

"Yes, sir," Fisher said before pulling out his comm, with his good hand. "Geological Technician Fisher. Ready to beam up."

"Aye," Scotty relies. "Locked on. Energise."

"What happened?" Ensign Wilson questions, as Fisher appears on the transporter pad.

"I took a tumble," Fisher answers.

"Onto what?" Wilson asks.

"I don't know," Fisher shakes his head. "Some kind of yellow ore."

"Decontaminate that uniform," Scotty orders Ensign Wilson as he leaves the transporter room.

"Yes, sir," Wilson answers, before long down at the read out on the transporter controls. "What ever that stuff is it acted like a burnout."

"What do you mean?" Fisher asks, frowning as he was sprayed with a mist of decontamination liquid.

Before Wilson could answer they were interrupted by another request from the surface.

"Captain Kirk ready to beam up," Jim's voice sounds.

"Just one moment, Captain," Wilson answers. "It checks out okay now. I better go get Keenser, we'll need to go over this with a synchronic metre, just to double-check… All right, Captain. Locked onto you."

Seconds later Jim appears on the transporter pad and he stumbled as he steps down from it and raises a hand to his forehead with a pained wince.

"Are you all right, Captain?"

"I'm all right, Ensign," Jim answers with a slightly forced smile. "Just a little dizzy… I think I've got a migraine coming."

"Maybe you should come down to sickbay with me, Sir," Fisher speaks up. "It might profit you to let Doctor McCoy give you the once-over."

"I might just do that," Jim nods, wincing again as a spike of pain shot through his head.

)o(

"You picked a good day, Fisher," McCoy picks up a hypo. "Business has been lousy. What'd you do, take a fall on purpose so you could get a little vacation?"

"No, sir," Fisher quickly answered, eyeing the hypo McCoy was holding. "I just slipped, that's all."

McCoy examines Fishers hand, before nodding to himself and picking up the PADD which held Fisher medical information.

"Take this," McCoy hands it to him. "Nurse Chapel will treat your hand… Then back to duty status, Fisher. I have no sympathy for clumsiness."

"Business has been lousy, you say," Jim speaks up, making his presence known. "Yet you're in a bad-mood none the less."

McCoy turns and glares at him and frowns as Jim forces a smile. He instantly picks up a medical scanner and steps towards Jim.

"Whoa," Jim takes a step back. "Can't I just be here checking on Fisher, he took quite a nasty fall, Bones."

"Jim," McCoy warns him, as Jim dodges away from him again.

"It's nothing, Bones," Jim forces himself to smile again. "I don't know why I bothered to come… Well, seeing as Fisher is going to be fine, I better getting going. Yeah, I'll just be going…"

Jim had no idea why he thought going to sickbay was a good idea… The moment he stepped through the doors, he'd been hit by a wave of memories and he hadn't felt fear or panic like it since he was fourteen years old… He didn't like hospitals of any sort, but he'd get himself to one when he knew he had a serious injury or when he knew McCoy wasn't in the mood for messing around, but he hadn't felt this level of fear and panic for years… So why had he put himself through this, just because he has a silly little headache.

"Jim," McCoy quickly catches Jim by the arm. "Sit down."

McCoy pushes him towards one of the bio-beds, as he checks the results on his medical scanner. Jim quickly sits down and his eyes dart around the room, with something akin to fear in them. What was happening to him? He takes a deep breath and tries to calm himself down before he starts having a panic attack, only to almost jump off the bio-bed as McCoy places a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine, Bones," Jim quickly mutters, glancing at his best friend. "It's just a headache."

McCoy frowns at him before stabbing him in the neck, causing him to yelp.

"What was that for, Bones!?" Jim demands.

"Painkiller and a mild sedative," McCoy answers. "It should help with your headache."

Jim glares at him and McCoy smirks slightly.

"I hate you sometimes," Jim mumbles, rubbing his neck, but the painkiller had already started to kick in and Jim sighs with relief.

"Get some rest, Kid," McCoy orders. "My guess is your headache is the result of stress-"

"What can I say, Bones," Jim grins. "Being Captain of a Starship is a stressful job."

McCoy rolls his eyes.

"Get out of here, you over grown brat," McCoy shook his head. "Stop cluttering up my sickbay."

"Sure thing, Doc," Jim salutes him, before hurrying away.

McCoy stares after him, just how strong a painkiller had he given Jim? He just shrugged one shoulder slightly and turns back to his work. He'd given up trying to understand Jim within months of knowing him, it was almost impossible to tell when Jim was acting strangely… Because sometimes Jim liked to mess with people's heads just for fun.

But McCoy made a metal note to keep an eye on him all the same.

)o(

Captain's Log:

The Enterprise has been tasked with a specimen-gathering mission on planet Alpha 177. We are making good progress, but after an unfortunate tumble of Lieutenant Fisher's part, he was forced to beam aboard early. Unknown to any of us during this time, during his tumble, Fisher had come in contact with a strange mineral on the planets' surface. Due to the minerals magnetic nature, it had an undesirable effect on the transporter….

)o(

"The ship's manifests, sir," Yeoman Rand enters Jim's quarters, alongside Jim. "I think they're in order now."

"Thank you, Janice," Jim smiles at her before walking over to his bed and sitting down.

"Are you alright, Jim?" She asks.

"Just got a bit of a headache, that's all," Jim answers, rubbing his head, the painkillers had lasted about five minutes before the pain had returned… It felt like his head was trying to split itself in two!

"Would you like me to comm Doctor McCoy?" Rand questions.

"No," Jim mutters. "I'll be okay… That's all, Yeoman."

"Yes, sir," Rand nods and quickly leaves Jim's quarters.

With a groan Jim lies back on his bed and shuts his eyes. He never had a head ache quite like this one before… The pain, it was different somehow. Suddenly a chime sounds through the room, someone was at his door.

"Come in," Jim calls and the door to his quarters opens.

Jim rolls his head to the side and catches sight of Spock standing in the doorway.

"Yes, Mister Spock," Jim greets him. "What is it?"

"Is there something I can do for you, Captain?" Spock asks, moving across the room and staring down at Jim.

"Like what?" Jim frowns, confused.

"Doctor McCoy seemed to think I should check on you," Spock answers.

"That's nice," Jim mumbles, before staring at Spock. "Come on, Spock, I know that look. What is it?"

"If you are in pain you should consult Doctor McCoy," Spock replies.

"I already have," Jim forces himself to smile at Spock. "He gave me a painkiller… It's just taking a while to kick in that's all."

Spock raises an eyebrow at him and Jim sighs.

"I'm fine, Spock" Jim gives him a look.

"In that case, if you'll excuse the intrusion Captain, I'll get back to my work," Spock inclines his head before turning to exit the room.

Jim suddenly sat bolt upright and grabbed his head as he cried out in pain. He must have fallen asleep, but he didn't remember falling asleep. He looks round his slightly disorientated and spots his comm on the edge of his desk… It was closer than the intercom.

Forcing himself to his feet, Jim stumbles towards his desk, but collapses to his knees halfway there as the pain in his head gets worse. It really did feel like his skull was about to split into two. Crawling forward, Jim reaches his desk and reaches up and his hand closes around his comm.

He falls forward and rests on his elbow and screams in agony as the pain suddenly increase tenfold. Blindly he flicks his comm open and tries to stop himself from crying out again, wasters begin to rolls down his checks. Jim gaps and a tangy metallic taste fills his mouth. Coughing, Jim spits out blood. Slowly Jim reaches up and touches his face.

His nose was bleeding.

"Kirk to McCoy," Jim whispers into his comm, as a ringing fills his ears.

"McCoy here," McCoy answers. "What do you need, Jim?"

But before Jim can answer, another wave of pain hits him and he cries out dropping his comm. Jim gasps and he's sure he heard his skull cracking as he loses consciousness… But that might have just been his head hitting the floor.

)o(

Hey, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this story. Until next time,

Blessed be,

TreeOfLife1997.