Vulcan Shadows

By Estellio

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Spock goes missing and all evidence points to McCoy while he is following cryptic clues to find him. However, after discovering one of Spock's most shocking secrets will McCoy still be able to help or will he condemn his friend to death and commit professional suicide? First, do not harm.

Chapter One: A plot uncovered.

McCoy lounged back in his chair and yawned. Today had been one of those days. The kind of days that were all too frequent on McCoy's calendar in his opinion, but the kind of days he still dreaded.

"Doctor, I'm clocking off. You need anything done?" Nurse Miranda Palmas popped her head in the door as McCoy was midway through his yawn. She smiled and waited for him to finish. "Speaking of clocking off, Doctor." She said and glanced at the chrono on her wrist. "This is the end of your fourth straight shift. Don't you think you should be heading to bed?" If the sympathetic and slightly annoyed look on her face was any indication then the choice wasn't really up to him.

"I thought I left my mother back on Earth?" He said with a smile as he sat up. Miranda walked in and propped her hands on her hips and gave him the most chastising look she could muster.

"Now Doctor McCoy, you get to bed right this instant before you fall flat on your face with the exhaustion. It's been a long day for all of us but you don't see anyone else punishing themselves so GET!" McCoy gave a languid smile as he looked her up and down. Miranda Palmas was a new nurse, recently picked up from Starbase 4, she was a young Ensign with chocolate brown hair, vibrant amber eyes, skin the colour of milky coffee and a body that even made Mister Spock pause for a moment. She was possibly one of the most beautiful women McCoy had ever seen and her fiery personality offset her exotic looks and made her damn irresistible.

"If your trying to intimidate me nurse then that posture in that uniform…it's not going to work." He saw the incredulous look on her face as he stood. "But bed sounds like a good idea right about now…" He walked around his desk, giving her the famous Georgian smile and proffering his elbow. "Care to join me." Her eyes widened in shock but her painted lips curled into a smile and she batted the elbow away.

"Why Doctor McCoy, I was told you were a gentleman. Well that's that myth out the window." Doctor McCoy feigned offence and reared back as if slapped.
"Why hold on just a damn minute. I'm a perfect gentleman. Watch." He stuck his foot out so the door slid open and gestured for her to walk through. "Madam." She laughed and walked through.

"Why thank you, Doctor."

"See. Perfectly gentleman like." She laughed and shook her head, heading for the door.

"Let's try this again in the morning when you don't look like the dogs dinner and aren't as narky as hell."

"Look like what! Hey!" She waved at him and slid out…past a stony faced Mister Spock. She nodded to him.

"Morning, Sir." He nodded back but said nothing as he walked in. McCoy was staring at his reflection in a control panel. He didn't look up for a few moments so Spock cleared his throat.

"Spock." Doctor McCoy said looking up. "Tell me I'm beautiful." Both of Spock's eyebrows shot up at that comment and his mouth opened to say something but he just closed it. "Fine then, don't. Make a guy feel unwanted." He grinned at Spock but the Commander didn't take the bait.

'How very unlike him not to have a sarcastic comeback. Something must actually be wrong' McCoy thought as he scrubbed a hand through his hair.

"I see no security guards which probably means you came here of your own freewill. Something wrong Mister Spock? I was just about to clock off." Spock stayed silent for several moments but when he spoke it was clear that something was very off.

"If you are clocking off then I can come back tomorrow. Sorry to have…bothered you, Doctor McCoy." He turned sharply on his heel but McCoy was quick to react. He strode forward and clamped a hand on the retreating Vulcan's shoulder. Spock went very still.

"No, Spock. I'm here. What is it?" The Vulcan swallowed and looked over his shoulder. That's when McCoy noticed something very peculiar.

Under normal light Spock looked pretty human…except for the ears. He never really looked that green. There was always a twinge, especially around the eyes but now Spock looked positively jade, he was very flushed and he looked more alien than ever. Bright green stained his cheeks and neck and he was…sweating! Spock never sweated, never! McCoy didn't even think he had sweat glands never mind sweating on a cold ship.

"I'm ill." Spock finally said and McCoy nodded.

"Spock, I think you better sit down and let me have a look at you." The Vulcan moved compliantly to the bio-bed and lay down. McCoy looked at the readouts and shook his head.

"Spock, now I ain't no expert when it comes to Vulcan biology but…every reading is up by almost twenty percent…that includes the pressure on your nervous system indicative of a lot of pain." Spock clenched his jaw.

"Nothing I can not handle, I assure you, Doctor."

"No Spock. You are very ill, temperatures up and you've got more adrenaline than blood in you, I'm surprised you haven't had a heart attack yet!" Spock closed his eyes and McCoy looked down at him, noticing the look on his face.

"Have you?" Spock nodded. "WHAT THE HELL! WHEN!"

"Three days ago in my quarters and eleven point four minutes ago on the bridge."

"Ten minutes ago! Why the hell didn't you come down straight away!"

"I was on duty."

"SCREW DUTY! YOU CAN'T STAY ON DUTY AFTER A BLOODY HEART ATTACK!"

"Doctor, your language, please…"

"SPOCK!" McCoy looked furious but it was quickly supplanted by concern and he put a hand on his friends shoulder. "Why didn't you come to me? I could have helped." Spock looked away and McCoy accepted it. The damn Vulcan was probably too proud and stubborn to admit he had a problem, must have killed him to come down here.

"I'm gonna check for any faulty valves like your father. This won't take a minute." Spock's fists clenched and unclenched at his sides for the three point six minutes it took for McCoy to finish his examination.

"Nope, fit as a fiddle…I think."

"You think?"

"Do you want to know how much I know about Vulcan's insides? Well? Very little! And I've grabbed every medical journal on the damn things I can find. It seems to be grand but I could have missed something. I'm going to…hold on. That shouldn't be there." McCoy peered closer to the screen. "Nope…that's not yours, definitely not yours."

"What Doctor?"

"You eat any metal lately?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Nothing, not a scrap? Could some have gotten in your food?"

"I doubt it but it is not impossible."

"Get stabbed?"

"Not recently."

"Done something kinky with a tiny metal object?"

"Excuse me?"

"Listen Spock. There is something attached to your heart, a small triangular metal object that wasn't there on your last physical which was under a month ago and I'm trying to figure out how it got there."

"Doctor, if I had eaten it then it would be in my stomach and if I had been stabbed there would be scar tissue and…if I had done something…kinky…I doubt it would have somehow gotten attached to my heart."

"That depends on what Vulcan's find kinky." Spock glared at him but McCoy just shrugged.

"Just covering all my bases. Take off your shirt, I'm gonna see if there is any point of entry. You never know how it got in there and I want to do a visual scan before I break out the scanners." Spock sat up and pulled his shirt off as McCoy returned to examining his console.

"Hmm…it's an alloy but it's not anything I've ever seen before. Not Starfleet design and too well crafted to be scrap…lie back." McCoy loomed over the half naked Spock and he surveyed the chest.

"Now where'd I put that heart of yours?" Spock's eyes shot open with concern. "I'm joking, Spock, jeese. It's been a long day, humour me."

"I…"

"If the next to words out of your mouth are 'am Vulcan' and then you say that you don't humour people I'll give you a demonstration of kinky stuff with metal objects but it wont be a little triangle I shove up your ass." He warned then realised how bad it sounded. "And I know that came out sounding bad but you know what I mean." He placed his hand on the Vulcan's side and felt for any irregularities. He realised his hands must be cold when Spock pulled his stomach in and stiffened. McCoy mumbled an apology as he continued.

"Can't feel anything near the heart or see any points of entry." He moved to the other side. "At least not on your abdomen." He moved up to check Spock's chest and sighed. "Ever think of shaving your chest?"

"No!" Spock said defensively and McCoy laughed.

"Don't worry, it's safe. Boy, when they said Starfleet will put the hair on your chest they had you in mind."

"If memory serves me correctly, doctor, you are no…ken doll yourself." McCoy looked up.

"Ken doll?" McCoy chuckled. "Someone had been listening on the nursing staff's conversations. Shame on you."

"Nurse Sands' voice tends to carry."

"You're telling me?" Spock took another sharp breath as McCoy ran his fingers through the hair on his chest. First on the right, then on the left.

"Hold on." He said and ran his fingers back over the area just right of Spock's left nipple. "You've any scar's there?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"Well you do now. It's small but it appears someone thought your heart was in the proper place for a heart…there's been an incision made…it's too high up to put the chip in though. Onto your stomach." Spock rolled over and the Doctor grunted. Apparently, whatever thoughts he had on the matter had just been confirmed.

"Spock…when you were on Tamriel you lost contact with the group for about two hours…where were you?" Spock tried to think but could remember nothing.

"I am…unsure, I do not remember losing contact with the landing party or being absent for that length of time." McCoy's cold hands landed on his back, just behind his heart and he traced the outline of a scar.

"They tried to heal it up but substandard equipment leaves a mark for a few days. You've been operated on, the item on your heart was put there on purpose. We're going to open you up and remove it right now, it's what's making you sick." He turned as the four Delta shift nurse's came in with Nurse Chapel at their head.

"Christine! Get prepped for op. Linda, I want you to contact the Captain. Tell him that Mister Spock's gonna be in surgery I don't want him rocking the ship. Someone's tried to kill Mister Spock."

IOIOIO

"It was meant to release a toxin into his system…why didn't it?"

"One of the valves ruptured releasing one of the strains to early. His system was able to defeat it and the device was removed before another strain could be introduced…but we did manage to weaken him sufficiently."

"Explain."

"His bodies effort to combat the toxin gave an increase in antibodies in his bloodstream, which made him very tired, he took a stimulant which introduced adrenaline into his bloodstream and the device magnified it. He suffered two heart attacks and is not on board the Enterprise any longer, he is on Starbase 16…incapacitated."

"He was meant to be dead!"

"He cannot defend himself, they have already discovered it was an assassination attempt. What do we have to lose?"

"He was meant to be killed quickly, quietly, on board the Enterprise with no connection to us and every connection to McCoy. Those two are always bickering and McCoy is the only one with access to the kind of information that would let him know about this toxin. We have to get both of them out of the way before…"

"Master?"

"I have an idea. We need them dead, Kirk must not find out…we need no connection to us…We can't just run in and grab, that'll be too suspicious.…..but what if we were to lure McCoy to us and Spock were to have a relapse? McCoy acts suspicious, Spock dies, McCoy goes missing, presumably flees because all the evidence points to him, further incriminating him…Any fool will be able to see the truth…well…my truth."

"But it was McCoy who discovered the chip, he removed it."

"Nerves. Maybe the Nurses who came in startled him. He tried to cover his tracks. I haven't worked out the details but I'll make sure every base is covered. Go now, leave me. I have preparations to make."

"Yes Master."

A/N: Before anyone narks to me about using nothing but dialogue in the second passage let me explain, it's that way for a reason, not because I'm a really bad writer (Though there is that) it's to keep anonymity. Wow it took me a long time to spell that word right. Still, I know this is a kinda short chapter but you know how it is. Sometimes a muse goes on and on and on and on…and sometimes they just go on and on. Hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to review. Constructive criticism is loved, I can't get better unless you help and it's ye who has to read this Crap. Well anyway, Chappy Two, coming soon.