MISSING

------------------

Disclaimer: Surprisingly enough, I still don't own Star Trek.

------------------

CHAPTER TWO

"This," Kirk said coldly, masking his anger with an even tone, "is all wrong." He received no answer. "I demand that you return me to my ship. You knew that my crew was not to be harmed. But you've done just that. And you were planning on it, too, all along, I'm sure of it. I don't know what game you think you're playing."

"You don't have to know," the hooded, faceless figure said from the small viewsceen. The voice was oddly androgynous and metallic, so much so that Kirk thought it was being fed through a translator. "But we have a deal, and I fully expect you to uphold it. So far, I have done nothing to violate your demands."

"You crippled my ship," Kirk hissed. "You injured my crew. I expressly said that you were not to harm my crew or my ship. Do you call that respecting my demands?"

"I call that nothing," the figure said. "But I will tell you this: I only fired on your ship until its shields collapsed, as was necessary to beam you aboard. Had your ship been in working order, it would have suffered no damage, and your crew would not have been harmed."

In his fury, Kirk was speechless for a moment. His eyes widened in disbelief of the utter wrongness in the figure's words. Finally, he managed to say, "You could have contacted me, I would have lowered the shields. I would have beamed myself over to your ship. And yes, if my ship had been brand new, if it had never undergone repairs or even left port, then maybe, it would have been fine. How could you have not known that? Why did you fire on us?"

The figure shook its head. "You do not need to know," it said, and cut the connection.

---------------------------

Spock winced as he sat up, balancing on the edge of the console onto which he had fallen. "Yes, Doctor," he said.

"But I don't understand!" McCoy exclaimed, jamming some solution into his hypospray as if for emphasis on his last word. "Who would want to take Jim? And why would they attack the whole ship to do it? Surely there would've been some better way."

"I am sure," Spock said, "that many people and organizations would like to kidnap the captain. I do not know why this particular person or organization decided to take him in this way, though I must point out that their tactic obviously worked. As inefficient as it might seem. Now, I must access the computer." He started to stand, and couldn't help but grimace.

McCoy pushed him down and applied to Spock's uninjured shoulder the hypospray that he had been preparing. As it released with a hiss, McCoy asked, "What do you need the computer for?"

"To find out where Jim has been taken," Spock answered. He restrained himself from adding Obviously, for McCoy would no doubt be insulted and try to argue, wasting precious time.

"I mean, how will the computer help you?" McCoy pressed. He was squinting with worry, as he sometimes did, but after a moment he turned his attention from Spock to his medikit and began to search for something.

"I may be able to discover, from the energy signature of the transporter that beamed Jim from the bridge, who has taken him, or at least who manufactured their transporter. I would like to investigate any messages that might have reached Jim without our knowledge. There are other tests that I can no doubt run as well."

"Well," McCoy said, preparing yet another hypospray, "I want to tell you to that you should report to Sickbay first, but I know that you won't listen to me. So, I've given you a general painkiller and a stimulant that should keep you from fainting all over your computer console. I have to move on, there are a lot of people injured on this ship. So, Spock, go and find Jim for me."

Spock nodded solemnly. He could already feel the affects of the hypos, and the lances of pain that came with each movement of his core seemed to be lessening. He wished that he could slip into a healing trance, but time was of the essence. Every minute wasted was another minute that Jim was taken farther from the Enterprise.

He nodded to McCoy and left the bridge.

-------------------------------

McCoy forced himself to concentrate on the patients in front of him. He had spent nearly two hours clearing the bridge of the injured, and when they—well, all but Spock, who had presumably found an undamaged computer somewhere—had checked into Sickbay, he moved onto Engineering. There had been a number of injuries, and one man had died, but Engineering was surprisingly less chaotic than the bridge had been. Scotty, who had managed to hang onto a rail as the ship tipped sideways, was working hard to correct the gravity problem. McCoy saw him, crouched over what seemed to be an important panel on the wall-floor, digging into the ships innards with a complicated tool.

"McCoy," Scott said, standing and approaching the doctor.

"Yes?" McCoy asked tiredly. He finished treating the concussion of an engineer he didn't know, and looked up. His shift was supposed to have ended more than an hour ago, and the constant barrage of new injured crewmen was beginning to exhaust him. He was also beginning to notice that he'd bruised his elbow during his short fall in Sickbay, and the tenderness was extremely annoying.

"I've found something interesting," Scott remarked.

"What?" McCoy asked bluntly.

"The gravity didn't go out by itself."

"I know that," McCoy replied. "We were fired on."

Scott shook his head in exasperation. "What I mean is, it wasn't damage to the ship that caused the gravity to change. That other ship must o' had a weapon that could control our gravity—d'you see what I mean, Doctor?"

"I'm not sure I do," McCoy said. "You mean that their firing on us had nothing to do with this?" He waved an arm around to indicate the sideways appearance of everything.

"Nothin' at all," Scott said. "I think they knocked our shields out so that they could reach in and twist our gravity, and beam the captain away. Speaking of that, has Spock found anything?"

McCoy shook his head. "If he has, he hasn't mentioned it to me."

He got a call from Spock about a half-hour later. Punching the nearest comm. unit with his thumb, he answered, "Have you found anything yet?"

"Yes, Doctor, I believe I have," Spock said. He sounded as tired as McCoy felt, which was saying a lot.

"What did you find?"

"I would like to show you," Spock said. "Can you spare a moment and meet me in my quarters?"

------------------------

Message, Capt. Kirk to Unknown Recipient

I'd like to talk more in person.

End of message.

-

Message, Capt. Kirk to Unknown Recipient

I want to know more about how you plan on accomplishing that. Again, we need to talk more in person.

-

Message, Capt. Kirk to Unknown Recipient.

I can hold to those terms, though I would like to tell my First Officer and my CMO what you plan to do. If you reply with a time and place, I would be happy to meet you there.

End of message.

-

"What's that supposed to mean?" McCoy asked.

Spock shook his head. "I do not know, Doctor," he said. He looked drawn, and his face was paler than usual. McCoy considered shooting him with another hypo, but then decided that there was a such thing as too many drugs. Spock rarely reacted well to his medicine anyway. "Obviously," Spock continued, "He told us nothing."

"Well, can you find any of his other messages?" McCoy pressed. "Is this all you've found?"

Spock sighed slightly, but enough so that, had the situation been less dire, McCoy might have pointed it out. "His other messages are locked, and I have not yet found a way to access them. I also believe, though I am not totally sure, for it makes little sense," Spock paused for a moment, "that Jim was beamed away through a Federation transporter."

-----------------------------

The plot thickens…or at least I should hope that it does…

Please, please, leave a review. Mental chocolate will be sent to all reviewers.