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The Infinity Particle

Chapter One

"Who wants to live forever

Who wants to live forever

Forever is our today

Who waits forever anyway?"

Queen

Captain James T. Kirk sat relaxed and at ease in his favorite chair in the entire universe, his Captain's chair. At present, there was nothing pressing or urgent that needed his attention, and Yeoman Rand was striking while the iron was hot, standing by the Captain and having him sign off on the mountain of padds that she was handing him one by one. As soon as each one was signed, she'd put it in her large carry all bag and hand the Captain the next one. The fact that there was no protests, no frowns, no moans and groans, attested to the relaxed, good humored status of the Captain. There was even a slight smile on his face. The Captain, was, in fact and in truth, generally good humored; his sunny disposition and sunshine smile were something that his crew enjoyed, strived for, and even treasured. But, as all his crew were very well aware of, he was never happy when he had to do reports or sign off on the weekly, monthly and quarterly mountain of padds that Janice would accost him with. The crew all had tremendous amount of respect for Janice, she didn't bat an eye when the Captain glared at the pads and by extension her. She remained stoic, unimpressed, and un frazzled every time.

"That's the last of them, Captain. You're finished. What's more, you're up to date, and in fact, even a little ahead for next week."

"Really, Ensign? I believe that's a first. You're now dismissed; go forth, enjoy your youth, be happy that you now have some well deserved time off."

A big smile crossed Janice's pretty face. "Thank you, Sir. As soon as I send these off I'll do just that."

"Good...now shoo, Ensign. Let me bask in the glow of knowing all paper work has been completed."

Janice shooed and Jim leaned back to look at the large view screen in front of him. They were in a very pretty part of space, he thought. It was densely populated with stars, planets, moons, and asteroids. The Alpha quadrant had been pretty well explored by Starfleet and other Federation worlds' ships, and it was nice to know they were flying through a friendly neighborhood for a change. No Klingons, Romulans, Orions, or even annoying Betazoids trying to get close to your person in order to get personal information out of you. No pugilistic Tellerites, or supercilious Andorrans going at each other's throats. Nope, today, and hopefully tomorrow, too, he had only his great crew and amazing bridge officers to deal with.

He glanced at his chronometer and toggled his personal comm button. It was almost lunch time.

"Sick Bay." Bones' Southern lilt sounded relaxed, so it seemed there was no excitement in Sick Bay either.

"Bones, are you free for lunch?"

"Just a sec, Jim. I'll check."

Jim could hear conversation in the background and then Bones' voice again. "Appears I'm free, Jimbo. Also appears these people wanna' get rid of me. Probably wanna' party hardy while I'm gone. Sick Bay is totally empty of patients, miracle of miracles."

Jim could hear Christine's distinctive chuckle in the background.

"Great! Meet you in the mess in ten." He swiveled his chair. "Mr. Spock, would you care to join us for lunch?"

"Not today, thank you, Captain. Although I will miss Dr. McCoy's cintillating conversation, I am in the process of upgrading one of the Science console modules."

"Very well, Mr. Spock. In order not to disturb your work, Mr. Chekov, you will have the con."

"I will?" Asked the surprised Chekov.

"You will," smiled his Captain.

"Thank you, Keptin." The gratified and delighted Chekov slipped into the Captain's chair beaming. It was his first time to take the con. Perhaps he would ask Sulu to take a holo to send his parents.

Jim turned on his way to the lift. "Oh, Mr. Sulu, please take a holo of Mr. Chekov in the chair. It is his first time to have the con after all, and he can send it to his parents and siblings."

"Will do, Sir." Sulu grinned over at the happy Chekov.

Chekov sighed happily. That's why they all loved their Keptin. He often did things like this, small things to make his crew happy.

Jim saw that Bones was already at their usual table in the corner. He picked out his food choices, amiably greeted his crew as he walked by them, and sat down facing Bones.

"No hobgoblin today?" Bones' blue eyes questioned him.

"No, he's in the middle of an upgrade or something, so he can't join us."

"Now, that's just a real shame," Leonard smirked.

"Bones!" Jim's hazel eyes glinted with sudden ire. "You know, it's time you give this a rest. It used to be your give and take was just in fun, but now you're always baiting Spock, and it seems to me that most of the time it's you that starts things. It would be good for you to remember that Spock is your immediate supervisor, and also that it's gotten really old, both for me and for the entire command crew." Jim put his fork down and looked hard at Bones. "Why do you keep on doing it, Bones? I know you have a reason, and I'd like to know what it is."

Leonard looked at Jim's hard face. He was very seldom chastised by Jim, but it was obvious that Jim had had enough. "I'm sorry, Jim. I guess its gotten to be a bad habit to jab at Spock. And yes, you're right. I do have a reason, a good one. It was by way of an experiment. As the ship's psychologist it's my business to keep an eye on everyone's mental health, not just the Captain's, but every crew member on board this ship, and that includes Spock, much as he'll deny he needs monitorin'. I started with these little verbal jabs to get a human reaction outta' Spock. He's half human, and he's negated and suppressed that whole half of his psyche. He's the most repressed person I've ever known. I can assure you, that it's not healthy at all. Even the full Vulcans we've met aren't as uptight and repressed as Spock, and that includes Sarek, T'Pau, Stonn and T'Prin. One of these days the consequences of what he's doing to himself are going to be dire. I was hoping that my little jabs would make him react in a purely human way, let him express annoyance or impatience or some honest emotion. I realized a while back that my experiment wasn't working, but I'm sorry to admit that now it's become a bad habit. I promise I'll try to curtail it. I can't just stop altogether, or Spock will get suspicious, but I'll certainly cut way down on my verbal jabs." The remorseful blue eyes looked at Jim.

"Alright, Bones, I'm counting on that. I just knew you had to have a reason, you don't really have a mean or vindictive bone in your body, but your behavior has escalated to the point where I had to say something about it. It's hard for me to see my best officers and dearest friends always sniping at each other. At times it's been amusing, but lately it's just gotten out of hand."

Leonard nodded. "You're were right to call me on it, Jim."

"Not just you, Bones, Spock is just as guilty, and I'll be speaking with him as well. He seems to derive some sort of perverse pleasure from trying to get the best of you." He put down his fork again and looked steadily at Bones. "As his doctor, do you really believe all this repression will ultimately be harmful to Spock?"

"Yeah, I really do. That's why it's so concerning to me. One of these days the emotions that he won't admit to, and is completely unwilling to express, will get the best of him, and I'm fearful of what the consequence to him will be. He won't be able to cope with them at all and he'll do something "logical", foolish, or downright stupid. You and Uhura are the only ones he seems to relate to on any personal or human level at all. I've even seen him smile at Uhura once."

"So what can we do for him, to help him?" Jim bit at his lip worriedly.

"I don't know, yet, Jimmy. It's not like there's another half Vulcan around that we can compare him to. I'm gonna' have a talk with Geoffrey and see if he has any insights that might be helpful. His knowledge of Vulcans far surpasses mine. I'm not very hopeful, though. We have to proceed very carefully, because Spock will put up even more barriers if he gets wind of any of this."

"Well then, he won't get wind of it. Whatever we decide to do, we'll be very discreet. Meanwhile, I'm counting on you to keep a close eye on Spock's behavior."

Jim's communicator beeped. "Kirk here."

"Sir, you have a comm call from Commander Gavin Bradford. It's coded 'For Your Eyes Only', Captain."

"Gavin?" Jim's suddenly alarmed and puzzled eyes met Leonard's. It was usually Violet who commed Jim to catch up, with Davy sitting happily on her lap, and Gavin sometimes with her.

"I'll take it in my Briefing Room, Uhura. I'll be there in a minute."

Bones' eyes followed him worriedly as Jim hurried out of the mess. He didn't run to the lift, but he did walk very fast. Running alarmed the crew while fast walking was SOP for almost everyone on board the ship.

Jim exited the lift, nodded to Uhura and went directly to the Briefing Room. He locked the door and activated the sound proofing. "Ready, Uhura," he told her lovely face on his screen.

Gavin's face came on. He looked drawn and worried. "Jim..."

"What's happened, Gavin? Violet, Davy?"

Gavin swallowed hard and Jim's stomach sank in premonition. "No, they're fine, Jim. It's your mom."

"Ma? Something's happened to Ma?"

Gavin sighed. "Yeah, and it's pretty bad Jim."

"What happened?" Jim said through thinned white lips.

"As far as we've figured out. Someone broke into the farm house, accosted Winona in her office, stunned her with a phaser, and as she fell, her head hit the edge of the desk. She's unconscious and has a concussion. Whoever did it, then searched the office, took off with her computer and her comm, and practically destroyed her office."

"Peter?" Jim asked him tightly.

"Peter is the one who found her, Jim. He was at a friend's house playing, and when the friend's mom dropped him off, Peter ran in the house and found Winona unconscious, with her head bleeding. He looked for her comm to dial 911, but when he didn't find it anywhere, he ran to the barn, jumped on Ginger and galloped to your neighbor's house. You can be very proud of him, Jim. He kept his head. He called Jonathon, told him how he'd found Winona, and Jonathon called the ambulance right away. He told Peter to stay with your neighbor until he could pick him up. Peter's fine, Jim, just scared and very worried about his Noni. Jonathon met the ambulance at the farm house, and while they transported Winona to the ER, he checked the office over very carefully. Then Jonathon picked Peter up and took him to Mama Salvatore's. He also called the farmer who leases your mom's acreage to take charge of the animals for a few days. Your neighbor said not to worry, he'd take care of Ginger, Dapple and the chickens. Jonathon also picked up Sorrel from the house and took him with his carrier, food and water to Peter. Having his cat with him made him feel a lot better and he's totally safe at Mama's, Jim."

"And Mom?" Jim whispered, dread pooling in his gut.

"She's in a Des Moines hospital for now, under guard, but the C in C is having her moved to Starfleet Medical as we speak. He's taking no chances with her safety. As soon as those thugs realize her computer was wiped, they may try to go after her again."

"Admiral Nogura? Why in the hell did the C in C even become involved in this, Gavin?

Gavin stretched his back. He was very tired. "It's a long story, Jim. I'll tell you everything in a minute, but first things first. Your ship is being ordered home, tell Mr. Scott best speed. The Admiral has made this a high priority, highly classified mission."

Jim didn't really care about his new orders right now, the only thing he cared about was that he was getting home to his mother and Peter. He also desperately needed to talk with Peter, he must be terribly frightened. "Let me give Scotty that order, Gavin, and I'll be right back with you." He toggled his comm.

"Spock here."

"Spock, take the con and tell Scotty best speed to San Francisco Space Central. We have new orders from the C in C."

There was a tiny pause of surprise before Spock responded. "Yes, Sir."

Almost instantly, Jim felt the increase of warp speed as he leaned forward to the large screen trying to contain his worry and impatience. "Alright, Gavin, tell me exactly what happened and how the C in C got involved in all this."

"Getting Admiral Nogura involved was initially my doing, Jim. Jonathon commed me right away about Winona, and I immediately reported it to my boss because Jonathon told me about the theft of Winona's computer. I know she works with highly classified research data so I realized immediately that the break in was problematical as far as classified data was concerned. My boss agreed with me and he passed on my report to his own C.O., Admiral Corrigan. The Admiral immediately ordered SIS to wipe Winona's computer remotely. That was done right away, so there's absolutely no data left on it. Because it was Winona Kirk, Admiral Corrigan passed the news to the C in C knowing his close connection with the Kirk family. Admiral Nogura immediately commed me to take over the case and to inform you of your new orders."

"But why, Gavin, what has all this to do with why Ma was attacked?"

Gavin settled more comfortably in his chair trying to ease his tight muscles. He'd been awake since yesterday morning, and his body was staring to protest. "Okay, here's what we know so far. This all started a few months ago on a small class L planet called Lamma II. It's a marginal planet, with a primitive ecosystem which supports only Terran type Bronze Age vegetation. As it is presently, its barely habitable, but after initial surveys it was deemed a good possibility for terra forming. A small Federation group of scientists and agronomists were sent there to investigate the indigenous vegetation and the feasibility of growing other plants. The agronomists found several promising plants already thriving. However, one plant that they found was, to say the least, unique. The plant they harvested was found to be 500,000 years old, give or take 5000 years. They determined it had been continuously alive for that long, and it was still as fresh and vibrant as a newly grown plant."

"The agronomists knew they had found something very special, so they cataloged it and sent it on to Fleet, to the Terra Agronomy Department for further testing. A very small, highly select group of Fleet Xenobiologists and Agronomists went over every molecule of that plant and after they completed their study, they plastered the highest level of security on it and all their results were designated as Level 4 classified. It was decided that all their data should be forwarded to Winona so she could check and double check their research. After all, she's renowned as the best Xenobiologist in Fleet. That was done several days ago, but we think that somewhere, somehow, there was a leak, either on Lama II or on the research team, and someone found out about the real age of the plant and that Winona had all the data. Whoever these people are, they broke into her office to find the plant data. I think she surprised them, so they stunned her. I don't believe they really wanted to hurt her, they just wanted get her out of the way while they searched her office and computer files. Her head injury came from the way she fell against the desk. Seeing all that blood, probably panicked them so they just took the computer and her comm with them and ransacked her office to make it look like a regular break in."

"They didn't know that Ma never leaves classified data on her computer. She always inputs all her research and data into a chip every day, so there's never anything of value left on her drive. She's always done that, since Sam and I were children. With little boys running in and out of the house, as well as all our friends and relatives, she's always been extremely careful with her files. Her office is never even locked because there's nothing of any real importance on that computer."

"I know, Jim, but obviously these people didn't know that." Gavin rubbed his tired grey eyes. "Do you have any idea where Winona might have hidden her data chip?"

"None. But maybe when I get home I can help you look for it." Jim sighed in frustration. He was desperate to get home. He could hear the hum and slight vibrations of the ship's warp engines. Scotty was really pushing the warp drive. "Gavin, who of my crew are cleared for this mission?" Jim asked.

"Doctor McCoy for one. He's badly needed at the hospital, Jim. Tom Jeffries is stationed there now and he specifically wants Leonard to take lead in Winona's case. It is a brain injury and Leonard is first and foremost a renowned neurosurgeon. The C in C also wants Mr. Spock. As soon as we can find the chip, the Admiral wants Mr. Spock to go over all the research and data on it. Anyone else from your crew that you think might be essential, you have Carte Blanche to add them to the mission. Jim," Gavin' face was somber. "The moral, ethical, and financial implications for this plant are staggering; think what breaking down the genetics of this plant could mean, Jim?"

"If it's DNA makeup can be duplicated or cloned in some way for the human genome, it means virtual immortality," Jim said bleakly. "There are ruthless beings across the quadrant who would stop at nothing to gain that kind of knowledge."

His thoughts went spiraling back to one of his most unusual missions, which was still highly classified. During an away mission to the planet, Holdberg 917G, to search for the life saving mineral ryetalyn that Bones needed for Jim's sick crew, they came across a human male living totally alone on the planet. The man called himself Flint, and he insisted that the Enterprise landing party leave immediately. After Jim convinced him of their dire need for the mineral, Flint reconsidered, and allowed them to use his robot to collect the necessary ryetalyn. Spock, investigating Flint's library discovered that he was over 6000 years old. He had been born in 3834 BC and had lived many different lives on Earth and on other planets. He had been Leonardo de Vinci, Brahams, Solomon, Alexander, among many other brilliant and important people throughout history. His accumulated knowledge was vast, acquired during many lifetimes, but, as he told Jim, the end result of his vast age and incredible knowledge was profound loneliness.

Jim remembered what Flint had told him. That for millennia, he'd had to endure an utter sense of aloneness, the knowledge of knowing that since he didn't age, he had to hide that fact. He could never stay in one place for long, or live a normal life. Soon enough he would have to disappear, leave his home and family behind before anyone became suspicious of his unchanging age. Over and over again he would outlive everyone he'd ever known, cherished, and loved; friends, lovers, wives, children

With difficulty, Jim brought his attention back to Gavin. He didn't know why, but thinking about that mission, always made him feel uneasy and troubled. 1

Gavin turned in his chair as someone behind him spoke to him. "I gotta' go, Jim. Now don't worry about Peter. Mama Salvatore and Marie will take good care of him until you get here tomorrow. Violet and Davy are going to visit with him today and so is Father Joe. I know you want to talk with him right away, so I'll notify Marie to expect a comm call from you. Do you know your ETA yet?"

Jim looked down at his comm. Spock had inputted their ETA.

"Tomorrow morning 0945. Please tell Marie I'll comm Peter as soon as Uhura can patch me through to my personal comm."

"I'll tell her right away. I'll see you tomorrow morning, Jim. I'll meet you at the Space Central lounge and take you and Leonard straight to the hospital Try not to worry too much about Winona. Tom says she's stable, and her vital signs are strong. And while she does have a concussion, it's not life threatening. He just wants a consult with Leonard.

Jim nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Gavin, out."

Jim toggled his comm. "Uhura, I'm sending you a comm code. Please patch me through as soon as possible."

"Aye, Sir. It will take a few minutes to get through the communications relays."

Jim waited impatiently until Marie's personal comm buzzed. She answered immediately. "Jim, Peter is right here. He's alright, Jim, just scared."

"Uncle Jim?" Peter's voice sounded small and very frightened.

"I'm right here, Squirt. I'm coming home. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

There was a quick indrawn breath, and then an ill suppressed sob. "Noni got hurt, Uncle Jim. She was on the floor when I found her. Her face was all white, and she had all this blood all over her head and forehead. I couldn't wake her up!" Peter shuddered as he began to cry in earnest. "I was so scared, Uncle Jim!" He hiccuped. "Is Noni going to be okay?"

Jim bit his lip. He longed to reach out to Peter and pull him in his arms to comfort him. He grimaced in frustration, pulled himself together, and began the very difficult task of comforting the heartbroken, frightened child he loved so much across the millions of kilometers.

—-

1 TOS Episode Season 3 "Requiem for Methuselah"