The incessant sound from the onboard infirmary is interrupted by an intercom from the bridge.
"Captain, you are needed on the bridge," Spock's monotone voice calls over the speakers.
"I'll be right there, Spock," Kirk firmly replies as he stands over the sleeping woman resting on one of the infirmary beds.
He watches as her chest gently rises and falls as her conscious lingers elsewhere. Her eyes remain closed and unresponsive.
The doctor steps towards her and takes a small blood sample from her arm and immediately analysis it. "You say you found her near one of the shuttles?" McCoy speaks up to the captain – his friend.
"The only one still able to fly, and get in to for that matter," Kirk replies simply. "The others were almost completely obliterated."
McCoy gives Kirk a questioning look. "Raises questions about our little maiden here, doesn't it?" He asks as he turns to face a monitor on the wall and looks through the statistics. He furrows his eyebrows and purses his lips. "And it keeps getting more mysterious."
Kirk looks to his friend with a serious look. "What is it? What's wrong?"
McCoy picks up several vials of liquid and approaches the girl. He inserts them in a medical syringe and begins injecting them into the girl. "It seems that she was poisoned with a form of tranquilizer. She still has some of it left in her body, which is why she's so unresponsive and limp." He gently sets her arm on her chest and disposes of the now empty vials. "I've given her a serum to clean her blood from the poison and an antibiotic to counter the muscle spasm side-effect which occurs with the serum."
"When will she wake up?" Kirk asks.
The doctor laughs lightly. "Whenever she feels like it." He pauses before placing a hand on Kirk's shoulder. "Don't worry; I'll inform you of when she wakes up, Jim. Get back to the bridge and make yourself useful."
With that being the final word between them, Kirk leaves the infirmary and heads to the bridge where the rest of the crew awaits his arrival. He looks around the room to see all eyes on him and he bites his lower lip before making his way to his chair. "Lieutenant Uhura."
"Yes, captain?" A dark-skinned woman replies sitting at a nearby workstation.
"See if you can find any planetary governments who may have filed a missing captain and/or spacecraft report from regions nearest from here."
"Aye, captain."
"Mr Sulu, open a channel to Engineering."
"Aye, sir." The helmsman initiates the intercom to the engine room and patches them through. "Channel open, sir."
The captain leans forward in his seat. "Mr Scott, do you read me?"
"Aye, sir," a man with a Scottish accent replies from within the engine room.
"I want you to go the shuttlebay and see if you can identify or trace wherever the hell that shuttle from the unknown spacecraft came from. Can you do that?"
There is a slight pause over the intercom. "I-I suppose I can give it a shot. I gave it a quick look over when you brought it here, but it seems… Different."
"Different?" Kirk's expression becomes mildly concerned. "In what way?"
"Different as in different, sir. No serial number, no ship class, not even engine numbers. It's as if it's a blank ship," the head engineer tries to explain.
Kirk looks at his second in command who seems as perplexed as he is. "Well, do your best, Scotty. Notify me if you find anything."
The transmission is closed and Spock approaches his captain. "A 'blank ship' as Mr Scott so put it can only mean the ship does not belong to an agency or government, therefore rendering it either illegal or declassified."
Kirk looks at him with uncertainty. "You're not trying to tell me that they're pirates?"
"To some degree, that is exactly what I am saying, captain. Although it would have been more accurate for you to say 'were'."
Kirk hisses. "I don't need your back-talk, Spock."
"If I am correct in my assumption, then it also means we have a government offender on our ship," Spock adds and watches his captain's face change.
He stands from his seat and confronts Spock. "You believe that she's a criminal? Have you even looked at her, Spock? She's just a kid!"
"Last time I checked, captain, so were you when you were a capital offender," Spock retorts, shaking his head. "Age has nothing to do with this, sir, I am merely stating what I see as the truth."
The captain rubs the back of his neck. "So what; you want me to send a report to officials that we have a space pirate in our custody?"
"Exactly, captain." Spock gives Kirk a very faint disconcerting look. "You cannot allow your emotions to out-weigh what must be done."
"Why is it that everybody is an enemy to you, Spock?" The captain's voice lowers into a testing whisper. "Why is it that you hold no compassion over others?"
"Compassion is not needed to fulfil objectives, nor is it necessary to do what needs to be done."
"And yet you once saved my life," Kirk retorts quickly and notices his commander go silent. He closes the gap between them and stares directly into his eyes. "Are you going to tell me that was not out of compassion and merely an objective you had to complete?"
Before anything more can be said, Kirk leaves the bridge in anger, leaving Spock standing silent.
Sulu turns his seat to face Spock behind him and frowns. "With all due respect, Commander, the captain is right." The helmsman watches as Spock's eyes almost glare at him and he quickly turns back to face his workstation.
"McCoy to bridge." Doctor McCoy's voice calls over the intercom.
"Doctor McCoy," Spock replies fully composed.
"The girl's awake... But you're probably not going to like it."