"Report, Chekov." The voice of the captain followed shortly after the sound of the arriving turbo lift.

"Still no sign, Keptin."

"Dammit."

Kirk fell into his Captain's chair, snatching up his PADD to look over the data. It just didn't make any logical sense to him. In front of the entire bridge's eyes, and on record thanks to the sensors, a foreign space vessel sputtered in the far distance only an hour ago. It was near the horizon of the planet they were approaching, a planet which showed absolutely zero signs of life.

Chekov's sensors had begun alarming the second after Kirk squinted his eyes and muttered, "Is that a...?"

And it was. Absolutely, no doubt, it was a spaceship. As he always did when he doubted himself, he looked over to his first officer for affirmation. Spock nodded his head; yes. When the Captain looked back to the view screen, it was gone. The alarms had silenced.

"Spock, where is the closest planet to this one?" He had asked him immediately after.

"3,145.67 lightyears away, Captain."

"Thought so." He grumbled. They were all thinking the same thing; who, or what, was in that spaceship? They were in undiscovered territory, and halfway through their 5-year mission, the furthest a federation vessel had ever travelled. Everything out here was an unknown. However, even unknowns showed some consistency. The laws of physics are understood by all beings, therefore many aspects of alien life tended to line up with one another. A disappearing spaceship near an extremely isolated (and dead) planet belonged to nothing they'd encountered before. The long-range sensors on the USS Enterprise were exceptional - top of the line. There was a passionate Scottish man on board her that could attest to that. Even with a cloaking device, the Enterprise should have been able to find that ship again. And even if that were not the case, just who exactly was it? Why were they at that uncharted, undiscovered, uninhabited planet? And why did they disappear?

Halfway through his inner musings, Kirk noticed the presence of his friend next to him. He looked up to Spock, blindly hoping that the logical man would have an answer.

"Speculation, Spock? Anything?"

The Vulcan sighed, a rare but definitive sign that he was stumped.

"I have none, Captain. Clearly, there was a ship several hundred miles away from our own. Our eyes cannot have betrayed us, as I have data recorded by the sensors that it did exist, if only for a moment."

"Who could they be? Did you recognize the design at all?"

He shook his head. "It was too far to adequately observe...Mr. Chekov, please access those few seconds in which the ship is visible and magnify."

Chekov shifted his deep gaze from the view screen to his controls, clicking what needed clicked. He tried to pull up the time the mysterious ship was noticed, but there was no data available. He blinked a few times and furrowed his brow. "What...?"

"Is there a problem, Lieutenant?" Spock inquired, sensing the young man's confusion.

"I...the computer, Meester Spock. There's no signs of the ship, the data is...it's gone, sir!"

With that bold statement, Kirk rose from his chair and Spock stepped forward to Chekov's controls.

"That is impossible." Spock said, mostly to himself, as he reached for the controls. He had just looked over the sensor charts moments ago, they couldn't simply disappear. A foreign and perhaps dangerous ship disappearing was one thing, but the disappearing of recorded data on the Enterprise was another.

Kirk watched nervously, praying that Chekov had made a mistake and that Spock would fix it. Any hope he had in his gut plummeted when he saw the minor shake of Spock's head.

"He's right, Captain...the recording, the data of that ship," he turned to look at his friend, "is gone."

For the countless time, James Kirk found himself and his most trusted fellowship sitting in the Deck A conference room. An anomaly had occurred, and not a single person had any clue how or why. Data recordings, which were viewed by multiple crew members, suddenly did not exist anywhere in the banks. Kirk, at the head of the table, had his chin resting on his left palm.

They were all silent, each lost in their own hypotheses and minds.

"A storm." the Captain thought out loud. "A magnetic, or cosmic storm."

"Captain?" Scotty asked.

"Perhaps some sort of storm sent a wave towards the Enterprise and screwed with her, erased the data."

"Unlikely," came the bass of Spock's voice. "as a storm powerful enough to do so would incur much more damage. More than that single chart of data would be tampered." He echoed what Kirk admittedly already knew.

"Not to mention we'd be having major alerts coming from the sensors if a storm came on us." grumbled McCoy.

"Right, right." agreed Kirk. "I just can't make sense of it."

"I believe it's safe to assume that the recordings were deliberately erased, Captain." Spock said. "No other alternative seems possible."

"Erased?" Kirk asked in disbelief.

"By whomever was in that succinct ship."

"And WHO was in that ship?! Is there any, bizarre way that a ship could pass our sensors undetected? Could the technology be so advanced?"

"Captain, the last civilization we came in contact with had technological advances only a few Earth centuries behind our own." Scotty said with his head in his PADD, briefing over his notes. "Granted, they're quite a ways away from here, but there's just no way that two planets in the same galaxy could be so varied!" He looked up and met his Captain's gaze.

"And, well, even at planet's who were further ahead than us in such a way...we were still able to clearly read their ships."

Kirk nodded. "Thank you, Scotty." In return, the engineer simply gave him a sympathetic look.

"Erased, Spock..." Jim adverted back to his XO. "You're implying they have mal intentions."

"Not necessarily, Captain, although that is a possibility." Kirk swallowed, keeping Spock's gaze for a moment. They'd come across beings with mal intent before, and it never got easier for Kirk to deal with. Putting his crew in dangerous situations was his least favorite thing about being Captain. Although he worried for them, he could never doubt them or their abilities. They knew what they signed up for. After all, risk was their business.

"So we've had a supernatural experience." McCoy summed up. The doctor had to stifle a chuckle at the extremely subtle eye roll Spock gave.

"Doctor-" began the Vulcan.

"Do you have a better theory, Spock?"

"Using the word 'supernatural' implies you -"

"I'm just saying we don't understand what happened."

"Stating such a thing implies that all scientific discoveries began as a paranormal thesis."

"Ugh, God. Listen Spock-"

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty! Can we get back to more pressing matters?" Kirk intervened with glowing eyes. McCoy released a very deep and frustrated sigh.

"We have no possible explanation, Jim." he said.

"Fine. We have no explanation. Now what we need to discuss is our next course of action." All eyes were on him. "What do we do next?"

It was a very loaded question.

"We get the hell out of dodge." McCoy said, unblinking. Scotty shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Why?" asked the Captain genuinely.

"There are...someone is out there, screwing with us. We know nothing about them, and they've fooled around with our ship. We saw them, they realized it, and they disappeared, taking our evidence with them. If they can do all that, they could do unimaginable harm to us as well."

"But wouldn't that insinuate that they want nothing to do with us?" countered Spock. "Why else would they go to such lengths to take away our records? Captain, I believe we should complete our analysis of the planet, as we would have prior."

"Dammit Spock, can't you let your science go for once? You'll have plenty of other opportunities in the future." glared McCoy.

"Doctor, consider dialing back your emotions and understand that we have a mission aboard this ship. We cannot flee simply because we fear what is unknown to us."

"We're sitting ducks, Jim." McCoy adverted his attention from Spock.

"They could be watching us, waiting to see if they need to take action or not. The more time we waste, the worse off we're gonna be."

"They may have left, Bones."

"Well we should follow suite."

Silence surrounded them once more.

"Scotty?" asked Jim, looking to his engineer. Scotty shook his head, his gaze to the table.

"It doesn't seem right, Captain. Something is off about this." He chewed his lower lip nervously. Jim nodded. Scotty's gut was telling him it was bad, and Jim trusted Scotty's gut. He also trusted his own, which had been raising alarms the moment it all began.

"Spock, how long until the science department has completed it's scans?"

"Seeing as we obtained orbit 37 minutes ago, the scans should be complete. All that would remain is the release of terrain probes and a possible landing party."

"Belay both of those. We're continuing forward, effective immediately." Jim rose, followed by the rest of his team. "Spock, I want a full detail of those scans by 1800 hours." He flipped out his communicator. "Kirk to Sulu. Continue on our navigations, warp factor 3." He barely heard Sulu's affirmation before turning to Scotty.

"Make sure the engines are in the pristine shape we want them to be in. As far as we know, those charts are the only things tampered with but I want to be 110% sure." He said with his hands on his friend's shoulders.

"You got it, Cap'n." Came the accented reply, topped with half a smile.

All parties had left except for Spock, who lingered behind. Jim took a deep breath. He knew that, in another way, Spock was right. They should gather as much data as they can about this eerie planet and it's atmosphere, perhaps take a search for their mysterious counterpart. But there were too many unknowns and essentially zero knowns. It wasn't logical to take that unnecessary risk. Jim knew that Spock understood that, but the idea of something so fascinating must have excited the Vulcan.

"Spock..."

"I understand and respect your decision, Jim. But you must understand this; our leaving this ambiguous being or beings leaves me in a state of...concern." Jim peered at him, unused to such honesty.

"Concern, Spock? For leaving?"

"Yes. For if we leave a possibly dangerous enemy with no knowledge of them as intelligent life, we are only condemning future explorers who cross paths with them. Perhaps explorers of our own federation." He said this with hardly a change in his usual repertoire, but as Spock walked past his Captain and exited the room, he left a chill that ran all the way down Kirk's spine.

"Sulu to Kirk."

Kirk exchanged glances with Spock as his communicator chirped. With a sinking feeling, he reached for the device. He and his first officer had just gotten in the turbo lift, prepared to get to the bridge and resume their commands.

"Go ahead."

After a few seconds had passed, Jim thought his heart would jump out of his throat in anticipation.

"Sir…" Kirk squinted his eyes, hearing that Sulu was having trouble finding the right words. "The warp drive…the entire control board, it's…not working."

Spock's eyebrow shot up in surprise, and Kirk thought his heart had stopped. After taking a few heavy breaths, he stuffed his rising panic down.

"Not working, Sulu?"

"We're still in orbit, sir…I attempted to put the ship in warp factor 3 as you asked, but…nothing happened, sir! Not even a connectivity or error message. Everything is frozen up, Captain." Both Spock and Kirk could hear the astonishment in his voice.

Kirk took a few steps back until he was leaning against the wall.

Mechanical errors had happened before, as had problems due to damage. The entire control panel freezing up, however, had never occurred. James Kirk was not stupid; he knew this was no coincidence. His stomach churned.

"Captain."

Looking up from stupor, Jim saw Spock had moved from his position by his side to standing directly in front of him. Jim had begun breathing heavily with a few beads of perspiration sitting on his forehead, where Spock stood like a statue with unflinching yet soft eyes.

"It's them." Jim said quietly.

"Yes." Spock nodded without looking away. They held their gaze as the turbo lift's door swooshed open. Jim made a move to exit, but Spock gently put his hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"I suspect they will be contacting us, Jim. Please, remember that they have exhibited capabilities we thought physically impossible. Be wary when you speak with them; you are invaluable to this ship." Kirk released a puff of air and smiled slightly.

"In other words, 'be careful and don't say anything stupid.'" Even through fear, he found himself smiling at the Vulcan, which seemed to happen often. Spock lifted his eyebrows, then nodded.

"That phrasing would be appropriate, yes."

Both men stepped out from the turbo lift and into the chaos that was the bridge.

"Sir, communications are down."

"Captain, the engineering deck reports issues with the-"

"Deck 5 is having malfunctions with the life support functions, Captain."

Voices from the officers collided while alarms blared, the anxiety of every person in the room meshing together. Kirk tried to focus on what everyone was trying to communicate to him, but the BWAAA BWAAA BWAAA of the alarm was piercing his focus.

"Alright alright, everybody return to your stations immediately and settle down. Someone turn that damned thing off! Keep your heads on and listen to me." He commanded with authority. Jim Kirk did not buckle under pressure. Spock had been by this man's side for a long time, and there had never been a time that panic clouded the judgement of James Tiberius Kirk. The crew was losing their minds in confusion and adrenaline, but Kirk stood strong with a clear head. Spock took a few large steps to the engineering panel and fiddled with it until he could mute the sirens. He barely registered the entrance of Doctor McCoy bursting through the door.

"What in blazes is going on, Jim?!" He spat.

"Give me a moment, Bones." replied Jim. He inhaled deeply and looked around the room, thankful for silence he didn't know he needed.

"Alright. I think we're all probably thinking the same thing, aren't we? First that ship, then the records, and now it's our controls. There is intelligent life outside the Enterprise, and they know we're here. First and foremost, we all need to be grounded. We've faced a lot together, all of you, me, and this ship. We can get through this together, too. Understood?" He looked around the bridge, meeting the eyes of his most trusted friends and colleagues. There was no other place he would rather be than on that bridge.

"Follow my every word." He stressed.

"Uhura," he started. "Open all channel frequencies, even the industrial wavelengths. Maybe we can-"

And then a voice.

"Homosapiens."

Kirk spun around in alarm, and found himself opposite a stranger. It was an alien species, not known by the federation. It was almost humanoid, except it was exceptionally tall and startlingly thin. It's exterior was black, with rough and uneven scales covering the flesh. The eyes were sunken and haunting.

"Human beings. And…a Vulcan?" The voice crackled. It was so deep, the vibrations shook the air around them. Lieutenant Uhura felt it's aura could match the devil's.

It's dark head looked to Spock. Spock was mystified. His eyes were wide with wonder, and his mind raced with anticipation of the unknown. The adrenaline he felt during these situations was always unexpected and even more unwelcome.

"I'm Captain James Kirk. Who are you?" avowed Kirk, wanting to get the attention off his first officer.

The alien's image suddenly faulted, appearing and disappearing like

static on an old television. A hologram? wondered Kirk.

"James." It's voice crackled like molted lava. "You will help me."

Kirk nodded, patting his chest absentmindedly.

"Sure." He acknowledged. "Sure, I can try to help you. We're explorers. We wish to push forward in science and reach out to all beings, and it is my wish to help those who need it. Why do you need my help?"

"Myself and those like me were left for dead on this planet. We wish to leave."

"You want a ride?"

"No."

The longer Kirk looked at the being, the colder his body felt.

"We are different, James." It continued. "We can do things that a species like yours could not understand. We understand things you aren't aware even exist."

"Why do you need my help?" Kirk repeated with emphasis. It cracked with static.

"Our way of life is through a crystal." It said. "A crystal indigenous to a star cluster 200,000 Earth miles from here. You came to us for a reason, James. You will retrieve those crystals."

Kirk scoffed softly as he sized up the now obvious hologram.

"Are you asking or demanding?"

"I am not asking." It said with ice.

McCoy could hear his heart pounding and idly wondered if he was going to have a heart attack. He was a southern doctor with a gifted sense, and he sensed this would not end well. He tried to take in who was in the room, how many of them knew basic medicine, and what he would do if it all went to hell. He prayed to any God that would listen that Kirk could talk them out of this.

"You say you have a higher awareness of the universe," ventured Kirk.

"yet you treat me and my crew like a freshly won slave. That seems like a mind with limited intelligence, don't you agree?"

"Are you telling me you're refusing?"

"I'll tell you this. There's this old Earth saying, been around for centuries.

And it's 'we don't negotiate with terrorists.' I think that speaks for itself." Kirk was numb with endorphins. He was playing Russian roulette with a monster.

Spock looked in Kirk's direction, admiring his captaincy. He was, to the core, a human. He was passionate, determined, and the only person Spock could ever call a friend.

Suddenly, a wave of ice ran from Spock's head to his heels, and he lost his breath. The panels behind his feet were bursting nails off as wires snaked out and around Spock's legs. The monster's hand was outreached, controlling the situation, and the matter in the air between his hand and Spock himself began morphing into a suffocating restraint. It formed and intertwined with the wires, wrapping around his torso and legs like a shadow with multiple arms. Spock cried out in surprise and pain, as his body was subjected to increasing pressure.

Kirk felt his heart stop. Only a few hours ago, they saw the ghost of a spaceship. Now a merciless extraterrestrial had his greatest friend wrapped in a death trap, and there was nothing Kirk could do.

The wires were tightly bound around his legs below the knee, as well as around his torso. He struggled against the force, barely thrashing around to force his hands to move. The pain was piercing. Wires from the panels in the ceiling knocked through and swept down to solidify the hold on his forearms as he was half lifted up in a weightless levitation. Violent waves of agony washed over him, drowning out the sounds of his lungs trying to breath.

"Stop, stop!" cried Kirk. "You'll kill him!"

"He's a Vulcan, isn't he James?" It cackled with baritone. "His body can hold up to this. This is hardly what I can do to him, or to you and your ship."

With horror, Kirk watched a wire snake out from the tangle and slither up Spock's throat. The matter emanating from the intruder's hands flowed from his fingertips to the endeavoring wire, strengthening it as it wrapped around his mouth. The torture magnified, and Spock found himself crying out in torment, only for his shouts to be muffled by the smothering ropes.

"What do you want?!" yelled Kirk.

The monster lifted his hand and clenched his fist.

"I want those crystals." It sneered.

Whatever power the alien possessed increased, and dark spots began to form in the Vulcan's eye sight. With rising dread, McCoy saw his body slowly stop fighting and his eyes begin to close.

"Alright! Alright, I'll get your damned stones, get off him! Let him go!"

begged Kirk.

With a lasting moment, the revolutionized matter burst and the wires dropped from his body. Spock dropped like an anvil, his body hitting the ground. Several bridge members cried out his name, but their voices were drowned by the alien's.

"I have programmed your navigations." The voice growled. "Your task is simple. Retrieve the crystals, bring them back to me. And you will be free to leave with your lives."

The second Spock was down, McCoy hopped over the rails and ran to his

side. He kneeled next to him and wrapped two fingers around his wrist.

He looked up with angry eyes when the monster pointed to the unconscious Vulcan.

"And remember, James, the second you deviate from your course, your half breed friend with be dead." He spat the 'dead' with such venom, Kirk forgot to breath.

"I suggest you don't take your time on this, Captain. And if you still do not return with the crystals after he's perished, the same thing will happen to your ship. Never fool yourself into thinking you can escape simply because I am on this planet. You will go, you will come back."

McCoy's stomach was in his throat with fury. He first thought the Vulcan was dead, but now he was quietly relieved when he could feel a feeble pulse. His skin was so incredibly pale, the doctor hardly recognized him.

"Deal." Kirk swallowed, his hands shaking.

The figure straightened it's harrowing back, and the hologram filtered out until the space was as empty as it was minutes before.

After his mind realized the threat was gone, Kirk leapt across to Spock and McCoy. Sulu and Chekov stayed at their stations, but were standing and looking over in deep concern. Uhura had her mouth covered, praying the Vulcan she looked up to wasn't dead.

"Bones…" Kirk started.

"He's alive," his statement was met with a collective sigh of relief, "but he's weak. I've never seen a Vulcan like this before."

"What do I do?" whispered the Captain.

McCoy shook his head, his eyes on Spock's still form.

"I don't know, Jim." He said honestly. "I don't know what we've gotten ourselves into. But Spock is on the brink of crossing over, and I need to get him to sickbay right now."

Kirk nodded, and they both wrapped a Vulcan arm around their shoulders and stood. He was so still and limp, Kirk had to fight off images of him being buried. After they found a solid stance, Kirk looked to Sulu with meaning.

"The controls, Sulu?"

The helmsman turned to his controls and found them functional. After informing his Captain of the update, he sat in his chair ready to helm.

"Warp factor 6 Sulu, to, wherever the computer tells us to go. Comms, Uhura?"

"All functional, Captain." She said softly. She watched the three of them enter the turbo lift; the somewhat shaking figure of her drained captain, the red faced and heavy breathing figure of the doctor, and the unmoving, almost dead body of Commander Spock.