Spock and Jim took their places as well, and Spock felt the familiar tingling in his chest as his molecules were scattered in the beam and rearranged on the unknown spaceship. As soon as the beaming was over, the trio checked their surroundings carefully, Spock immediately checking his tricorder. They seemed to be in some sort of theater, with a red velvet curtain and hundreds of seats facing the stage made of wood, where they were standing. A thick layer of not dust, but sawdust covered the ground, making the air musty.
Spock suddenly felt a throbbing of his head, and tightening of his throat, and an itching behind his nose. "Oh no," He thought. "Jim and Leonard are going to have a great laugh about this…" Spock sneezed, crinkling up his face.
Immediately, Jim and the doctor roared with laughter. "That was the… cutest thing I've ever seen!" Jim gasped, slapping his knee.
"I… thought that… Vulcans… couldn't sneeze!" McCoy managed to speak with ragged breaths.
Spock struggled to keep his face emotionless. He raised an eyebrow and calmly said, "Thanks to my human half, I am able to sneeze."
Jim opened his mouth to say something, but was cut short by the doors of the theater flinging open. A humanoid stepped through. His hair was a strange turquoise color, and his skin was a light violet. The alien was also wearing a strange pink robe- it looked suspiciously like a bathrobe! He seemed to be alone at first, but then two others, just like him but garbed in salmon colored robes instead.
Jim stepped forward on the stage. "I'm James T. Kirk, Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. This is my First Officer Spock, and my Head Doctor McCoy."
The humanoid looked at the trio with a wrinkle of his nose, and replied in a deep, booming voice that was very much different than that of the voice on the transmission. "You didn't follow our instructions to come alone… but the others will have to be… kept with you. You may call me Diam. We are the Quellorions. Come with us, now."
"Well, so much for a peaceful greeting," Leonard muttered, falling into line with Jim and Spock as they were led out of the doors of the theater. The three men had also all noticed one thing: the weapons that the Quellorions carried were old fashioned, almost medieval-looking swords and axes. Spock raised an eyebrow when one of the guards (this is what he assumed they were) pointed the tip of his sword right at Spock's neck, and the other one followed his Captain and the Doctor with his ax raised menacingly, down a long, seemingly endless corridor.
"Diam!" Jim called. "What have we done to offend you? I don't really appreciate being led around like this!"
Diam stopped. "Silence!" He boomed. "Or else, one of your friends gets it!" Spock and McCoy were both roughly grabbed, and the weapons pressed to their necks. Spock tensed, ready to do a nerve pinch, and he saw Leonard's hand stray toward his phaser. Jim shut up. The Quellorions lowered their swords and axes slowly, and both men relaxed.
The trio looked at each other. Jim shrugged. "On this ship for a few minutes, and we're already held prisoner," He seemed to say. Leonard shook his head as if to sigh, "And we didn't even do anything wrong." They both turned to Spock. Spock raised an eyebrow. Despite the situation, his two comrades both stifled laughs. Spock decided that he would concentrate on their surroundings, in case the knowledge might prove useful later.
They continued on, and the hallway emptied out into a large circular space that seemed to be a type of market, where many other Quellorions mingled. Most of these were wearing orange, yellow, or salmon robes like the guards, but Spock couldn't spot any with pink robes. "The color must represent rank or job, like on the Enterprise," Spock decided. "Salmon must be for guards. The orange seems to be for vendors and shop owners. Only yellow clothed Quellorions seem to be buying merchandise, they could be the wealthy or officials. And pink is most likely one of the highest rungs- the ruler or an extremely important official." Then, a thought came to Spock. "Fascinating! There seem to be only male Quellorions here! Are the women and children simply somewhere else? Or are they like some other species who reproduce using cloning?"
As they walked through the market, Quellorions stopped to do a strange salute in front of Diam. They would raise both hands above their head, and then form an "X" in front of their chest. Diam repeated the gesture, and they would continue on. It seemed like all the Quellorions were happy, none of them seemed to be bothered by the prisoners walking through. From what Spock could hear, the only conversations going on were friendly and relaxed, too. None seemed to be as harsh as the two guards or Diam.
Suddenly, the Quellorion leader, as Spock had guessed he was, due to the salutes, turned sharply to the left, toward a hallway that branched off from the circular space. Again, there seemed to be no other hallways or rooms connected to the hallway. The group walked in silence. Finally, the hallway ended in a single door.
"Your prison cell. Get in there." Diam ordered. The guards pushed our heroes inside and slammed the door shut.
*Sorry that this chapter is a little short. The Spock sneezing part is a reference to the story 20 Truths: Spock by Nausicaa Smith. Thank you so much for all the reviews so far! :)
