"We regret to have to tell you, Captain Kirk, that it appears your two officers did not heed our advice and went to Plorer without official entry passes. As you know we have no authority in Plorer. We have managed to get a three hour official entry pass for you and one other on the grounds that you do not interfere with any matter and that you leave all communication devices and weapons at the central checkpoint. You will be aware that any interference would be in direct violation of your Prime Directive and that the Plorer society will have taken your two officers as belonging to them as a right by now. They entered with no official papers so Plorer has the right to claim them as their property."
Having known and worked with Captain James T Kirk for so many years Doctor Leonard McCoy could tell that the captain of the USS Enterprise, the finest ship and crew in the fleet, was only just keeping his emotions in check. This was the only hope they had of finding out what had happened to Spock and Uhura and Jim would not let it slip away and yet he would not break the Prime Directive.
"My Chief Medical Officer and I shall beam down,"
"Your passes are for three hours tomorrow morning Plorer time. You will be contacted and given the co-ordinates then. Remember, Kirk, they went there and are now a part of Plorer society. Their role in Plorer society will not be pleasant but they are a part of Plorer society now. It is not an overly hospitable society by our standards but it is their way. Your Federation understands that we have a symbiotic relationship as each has something the other needs and we respect each other's right to govern in our own ways, which are very different. You will not interfere, Kirk."
"Thank you for getting us the passes. We will be ready. Kirk out." from the way Kirk sat back in his chair McCoy knew the frustration level had reached a point it needed an outlet.
"May I have a few minutes of your time, Captain, to talk about why I have to go." the reaction was what the Enterprise's doctor knew it would be: the shocked look of him almost questioning a command decision on the bridge followed by an understanding nod.
They were quiet for a moment in the briefing room, Kirk pacing while McCoy sat and watched him. "Want to tell me what makes you think they would have gone to Plorer? I mean it is an independent country in this planet, its whole systems are different from those around it. While it has embraced most of the ways of the rest of the planet it still clings to the use of those who are different."
"They didn't go to Plorer, Bones, they were taken by force. You read the reports we have on how the people in Plorer find those different to them fascinating to watch and study. Out of the group that beamed down who would be seen as being different and therefore worth studying? They were taken. "
"Okay, let's suppose they were taken, you heard what the Director said, you know what our orders are: no interference."
"Dammit, Bones. I won't leave Spock and Uhura to be treated like what we read about. I won't!"
"Now you listen to me, Jim. For one thing we don't know how they are being treated and for another there is the Prime Directive to consider. They'd have a great case against not just us but Startfleet and the Federation for that matter as well if we tried to get them back as they could claim it would affect their society."
"I won't leave them." Kirk stopped pacing and looked at his friend and Chief Medical Officer, 'Why have you given up so easily?"
"You think I don't want to go down there and get those two back? You think I don't want to go down there and tell that, that excuse of a Director exactly what I think of his indifference?" McCoy put his hands on the table and leaned towards Kirk, holding his gaze. "To have taken them they would have fought and people would have noticed them fighting. What was seen was they both seemed to feel faint in the museum and were seen being helped out by what was believed to have been the museum's medical team but wasn't so that lets me know they were drugged. Just thinking of somebody drugging them like that makes me want to put a photon torpedo right up the Director's."
"Okay, Bones," Kirk tried to smile, "I guess I
'm just wound up by it all. There has to be a way to get them out."
"Nothing that doesn't involve breaking the Prime Directive."
The computer buzzer sounded and Kirk turned it on, "Sorry to interrupt, Sir, but we have been advised that four crew are remaining planet-side tonight with official permission. As far as I know none are in Plorer. I checked and three are in line for extended shore leave and one is well overdue for some down-time."
"Excuse me, Sulu. The one overdue for down-time wouldn't just happen to be Keith Lomms would it?"
"Yes, it's him."
"Great. Thanks."
Once the computer was off Kirk looked at McCoy, "You know this Lomms?"
"Most of the crew does, Jim. An exceptional search and rescue expert instructor who has done,"
Kirk nodded as he remembered the officer, "Eight successful rescues in the past four months that resulted in him spending considerable time in Sick Bay and," he could not keep the smile back, "I believe five of those rescues involved Spock and myself."
"That's him. If you take the time to read his papers he is not meant to be doing anything but instructing. No field work. Now I have tried and tried to stop him but he and that blasted Vulcan both use irrefutable logic against me when they want. It's good he has finally taken some down-time. I was getting to the point of seriously considering getting security to haul him in here and keeping him sedated till I felt he had slept enough. My money is on him, at the moment, being in some fancy hotel spread out on a over-sized bed, in a deep sleep, finally giving his body a chance to totally rest and recover." McCoy put a hand on Kirk's shoulder and gave it a squeeze, "Might be an idea if we also got a few hours sleep. We will need it for down there."
True to their word the Plorer contact gave them the co-ordinates and they beamed down to the central check-point, were searched for weapons and any form of communication device, handed a disc each, and told, "Should you encounter the two that were yours just remember that they are now ours and you will be breaking your oath to uphold the Prime Directive of non-interference should you in any way interfere with their new lives and their places in our society. Those who come to Plorer know our ways and accept them. Nobody is forced to come to Plorer. Our people are free to come and go. Enjoy your stay."
A Plorer woman selling guide maps near the transporter port looked at Kirk then at her assistant after he had purchased one with no comment, "The one who came the other day was more pleasing and much more pleasant. He is due out tomorrow so we will see him again."
When they were clear of the checkpoint Kirk looked at McCoy, "You don't think that the one they were talking about could be Lomms, do you?"
"Jim, Lomms would, I am sure, want to just sleep as he has been in need of some planet-side rest for a long time and his body needs sleep. He is friendly but there would be nothing else in it, if that is what you are hinting at. He is too much in love with life, has a passion about doing new things, to get into a pattern of leaving broken hearts behind him." McCoy gave him one of his knowing looks, "He knows he needs to sleep, to let his body properly heal. He also isn't the sort of man who would like Plorer's many attractions, not when there is something physically or mentally challenging somewhere else. The last time the crew had time on a planet to rest and relax he was in Sick Bay after one of your fool stunts as I recall."
"Yes, I just wanted to test the alterations Scotty had done to the shuttle and got the damned thing into that spin. Spock told me if Lomms had been wrong in his calculations on an illogical action we both would have died instead of Looms just having been knocked around so much in the pod. How long was he in?"
"Six weeks, two of which I kept him sedated so he wouldn't try moving. Damn fool wouldn't stay still. But he's not such a fool - he would know this time his body needs sleep, that he is in absolutely no condition to be of any use to anybody till he lets his body catch up with all the rest it needs. Told me he would be thinking of what he could pass on to the younger officers about that rescue: that he would figure out what went wrong. He may not even be aware that Spock and Uhura are missing. And if he did he would know that there is no way for any of us to help Spock and Uhura without breaking the Prime Directive, Now he may do some things I am inclined to think border on madness even he would not risk that. No, Jim. He'll be sleeping."
There were people running toward a building along from them and McCoy was finally able to stop one of the local, "What's all the excitement?"
"The stranger. Rall lost that exquisite black beauty to him yesterday and today he may lose the alien one. Nobody had bested Rall before in the statue fight, he won five of the seven hour long conflicts after Rall had really hurt him in the first one. Rall has never lost one of his amusement pieces like he did to the stranger yesterday. He is furious at the loss of the beauty and then the stranger made him state he would not abuse the weird one till after he tried to win him today. Today they play Skemor for him. Now, I must go or I'll be late and not get a good seat."
In the glance they shared Kirk knew McCoy was thinking the same thing - they had found Uhura and Spock and the stranger had to be Lomms.
"Now Jim, if you are thinking what I am thinking, it is way too big a jump in logic, even for you."
Amusement pieces. Even the thought of what that might mean fuelled the anger in Kirk. There had to be a way he could get his friends out without breaking the Prime Directive, but as they had been taken as part of the society then he could do nothing. He had taken a vow not to interfere. He lived by that principal. He closed his eyes as he tried to think of a way as he could not imagine leaving him, them, behind on this planet.
"You okay, Jim?" McCoy gripped his upper arm and Kirk saw the concern in the blue eyes and just gave a quick nod.
"There's got to be a way, Bones. There's got to be a way."
"No beaming out, no communication, no back-up, the Prime Directive, and the damned life they will have." McCoy gave the arm still in his hand a squeeze, "Perhaps we should just go back. I, I don't know about you but I do not think I could bare to see either of them as they possibly will be."
"I can't Bones, I can't go without seeing for myself. I need to know."
Quite a crowd had gathered by the time they got in and found a place to stand. A solidly built man in his late fifties sat at a table and Kirk realised it had to be Rall, he had the looks of a man in total charge of his domain and who adored the adulation of his followers. Four scantily clad exotic women were tending his needs, allowing him to fondle them in public. Looking around it was clear that anybody who was different was treated as a mere amusement.
There were gasps and the crowd parted enough for a man to walk toward the table followed by a woman wearing a long hooded robe that covered her head to ankle.
"She seems tamed." Rall reached out but the man pulled the woman back.
"She is mine and if you touch her I will sever your hand from your arm and then your arm from your body. Where is,"
"I wish to see how you tamed such a wild one."
The man pulled back the hood and only McCoy's grip on his arm stopped Kirk from lunging at the man. It was Uhura and Kirk could tell she had been badly beaten. Beaten into submission. "She now knows she is mine. I shall take her with me when I leave. I claimed her last night."
There was laughter, "I'll say he did. Repeatedly all night. I had the room through the wall and all I heard was her begging him not to and him taking what is his due as owner. The bed kept hitting the wall. Kept it up most all of the night."
"Now, where's the other one? He better not have been,"
"He is as I said he would be. I sedated him last night and this morning with Fallet, best thing for these Vulcan types. Totally numbs their mind and makes them docile, easy to control. He wouldn't be any trouble and if he is." the man placed a hypo on the table before him, "I am ready with another, larger and far more concentrated, dose for him. But," Rall clapped his hands and two men came out with Spock hanging limply between them, obviously unaware of where he was nor the fact that he was stripped naked apart from a flimsy loincloth, "see for yourself." Rall moved and stood beside Spock, "I did not mark him nor use him as we agreed. Here is the proof to that." McCoy's grip on his arm tightened as the man called Rall laughed as he removed the last bit of clothing from Spock. "As you can see, he is unmarked, and obviously able to give pleasure and be used for pleasure."
Slowly the man turned around and for the first time they saw his face. All Kirk saw was a face set in total concentration and reflecting total command and control but he heard McCoy's sharp deep breath and half-whispered, "Lomms."
The only times Jim Kirk could remember seeing the man who stood there so calmly with a hand on Uhura, were the brief thank you visits he had made to Sick Bay after being rescued. This was the first time he had ever really looked at the man. When he walked over to stand by Spock, Kirk saw he was on the tall side and proportionally muscular. James Kirk noticed how this officer moved in a very fluid way, saw how he seemed so confident and in total control, how he radiated an aura of unequivocal command while being totally nonthreatening. As though he did it every day, Lomms took off his jacket and wrapped the sleeves around Spock's waist, tying them behind him, giving the Vulcan some privacy, then turned and looked at Rall, "Nobody sees or uses that which will be mine. Nobody."
It was all Kirk could do to stay still as Rall laughed, "Yesterday you were lucky to win the black beauty but this one you will not win. This one," Rall reached out and put a hand under Spock's chin and raised his head, "This one shall give me pleasures you can only fantasise about for the rest of its long life."
A silence seemed to fill and still the entire room as Lomms quickly grabbed Rall's wrist and pulled his hand away, "I said nobody."
"He is still mine and I shall," Rall struggled to free his wrist but Lomms held it tightly and seemingly effortlessly bent the fingers back further.
"I now see what I am facing. A thing that can't be trusted. A low life whose word means nothing." briefly Lomms looked around as though searching for something or someone, then back at Rall, "What happened to him?"