"Searching for a present to impress a lady, Captain Kirk?" the keeper of a jeweler's shop asked Kirk who had been strolling around the shops for a while now, keeping a look-out for a special ring.
Jim pressed his lips into a thin line. It hadn't been the first time he'd been asked that or a similar question today, and it was getting on his nerves. He wore civilian clothes, however, most people recognised him, and these shop keepers seemed to think all he could ever be interested in was some bibelot to impress a lady, or worse, to get her into bed. They'd wanted him to buy some very expensive earrings that once belonged to some Orion princess, a baroque flacon of an Andorian perfume, the Risan statue of some fertility god, or, and that had been almost insulting, a little bottle of a Betazoid lovepotion that "Will make you irresistible to the fairer sex, Captain Kirk", as if he needed it. Bones would find this extremely funny, he thought and suddenly was glad that he was not here with him. He hadn't talked to him in three days now. Well, that certainly hadn't been his fault. After the first day, Kirk had made several attempts to get in touch, to apologize, or at least to give Bones a chance to insult him further, but no, the doctor had just ignored his calls.
"Captain." Spock, who had suddenly appeared beside the shop keeper, said. He could put dozens of meanings into that one word, right now it was meant as a greeting and something else, a warning? Something definitely needed his attention, or at least Spock thought so. Kirk sighed.
"No thank you, I'm just looking around," he replied sweetly. As the shop keeper retreated with a bow, he turned towards his first officer.
He was surprised to see Spock here. The Enterprise was docked at the base for some repairs and a short break for the crew. Everyone was glad to have some spare time before their big return to Earth. Everyone but Spock, of course. Spock had insisted on staying aboard, ... on duty.
"Spock. If you have finally decided to take some time off, why are you still wearing your uniform?" Kirk asked, although he didn't really want to hear the answer. It was either that Spock was not off duty, but here on an official matter, or … well, that was probably it.
"I'm not entirely off duty, captain."
"Not entirely?" Kirk repeated, "which part of you is, and which isn't?"
Spock had turned his back towards the shops and was now leading them away into a less frequented part of the shoppimg area. "I have signed myself off duty, since I did not want my concerns to be recorded in the logbook, however, I'm not here to endulge in recreative activities."
That caught Kirk's interest. Spock was playing secret? Something was up.
"Okay, you have got my attention, Spock. What's wrong?"
"Have you seen Dr McCoy today?" Spock answered with a counter question.
Kirk sighed. "No, Spock. The last time I saw him was three days ago."
Spock nodded. "In the last three days, the doctor has made certain to avoid any encounter with me, as well."
"Why are you asking?"
"Nurse Chapel contacted me at 1600 hours. She said, she had reasonable concerns about Dr McCoy's safety."
Kirk frowned. "Why?"
"According to Miss Chapel, Captain Saluk of the P'Jem has contacted him."
"So?" Kirk found that strange. What did the Vulcan want from McCoy? But what was more, why would he pose a threat?
"Miss Chapel could not go into further details, however, she was very convincing that Captain Saluk is acting on other interests than those of the United Federation of Planets."
"Other interests, what interests? And what do you mean, she could not go into further details? What does she know about it?"
"I apologize, captain, but I gave her my word that I would not discuss this with you for more than is neccessary. Doctor McCoy is not answering his communicator."
Kirk felt irritation at his first officer well up inside him. He'd thought that especially after the Talos Four affair during their mission's first year, it had become clear to Spock that it was neither good nor neccessary to have secrets before him(6).
"He's probably just ignoring your call," Kirk grumbled, but took out his own communicator.
"Kirk to Enterprise."
"Uhura here, sir."
"Lieutenant, please call Dr. McCoy and have him report to sickbay immediately."
Uhura rolled her eyes. It was no secret that their captain and CMO were at odds at the moment. This was probably the reason why she had to call the doctor, instead of the captain calling McCoy directly. She felt like a kid mediating between its mom and dad in a quarrel.
"I have located the doctor's communicator signal on the observation deck," Spock said after Uhura had asked them to wait.
"Then let's go," Kirk said, leading the way, "why didn't you just go there? He's probably just brooding and refusing to answer your call."
"If he is, he's disregarding regulations."
"McCoy disregarding regulations? Unheard of," Kirk snapped, finding the turbo lifts that would take them to the observation deck.
"Uhura to Captain Kirk," the communications officer reported when they were in the lift.
"Yes?"
"Sir, he's not answering. His communicator signal comes from the observation deck."
"Thanks lieutenant, we're already on our way," Kirk answered, and as an afterthought, he added: "why are you on your post? Did you not take some time off?"
"I came back at 1400 hours and relieved Marissa, so she could go. A starbase is not really my idea of a place to go to on shore leave, sir."
"Sorry to hear that. Did you not leave with Christine Chapel?"
"Yes. She went off to meet someone after we had lunch together. So I decided I could as well go back to my post. It's only a few days until we reach Earth, anyway."
Kirk smiled meaningfully at Spock. He'd find out about Chapel's secret one way or the other. "You're missing your station already?"
"I think I'm not the only one who'll be missing my chair on the bridge, captain."
They'd reached the observation deck. "Guess not, lieutenant. Kirk out."
As they stepped out of the lift, they looked around to search for the doctor. Most people were standing in small groups around the bar tables, talking, some were standing at the huge windows in pairs, looking out into space. A family was watching the docking maneuver of a small ship, another group of people was sitting at the bar playing some sort of card game. But they could not spot McCoy anywhere.
"Over here, captain," Spock said, leading them away to a flower tub behind a pillar. It contained an ordinary looking fern. Spock reached under it and retrieved the communicator.
"Well, there's your signal, Spock," Kirk said, taking a look around, concerned now. He'd have believed Bones not answering his or Spock's calls, but he did not believe he would throw away his communicator like that, only because he wanted to be left alone.
"So it seems, captain," Spock conceded, examining the discarded communicator.
"Wait, what's this?" Kirk asked, reaching under the plant again, retrieving a silver object.
"It's the casing of a medical device," Spock said, examining the object Kirk had handed him, "if I'm correct, it belonged to an anabolic protoplaser."
"What's it used for?" Kirk asked, only mildly impressed. He had long gotten used to the fact that his first officer was a man of great knowledge in many fields.
"It's used to repair torn veins and arteries by uniting the nerves and muscle fibers," (7) Spock provided, turning the silver casing in his fingers, before continuing, "it works on the basis of Nieminen rays, that's why the casing is relatively strong."
"And now, it's missing." Kirk finished. Nieminen rays were harmless, but they could disturb other instruments and computers … and they could be traced over a relatively long distance, and left marks for a relatively long time(8). Kirk frowned. Could Bones have discarded the casing of the device he was carrying, so that they would be able to find him? If that was the case, he really was in trouble.
Kirk took out his communicator again to call Enterprise. They needed to scan the area, get a security team.
He was stopped by Spock.
"Captain. I see you have come to the same conclusion as I, that the doctor took the device to make it possible for us to trace him."
"Yes?" Kirk did not understand why Spock wanted to stop him from informing Enterprise that their good doctor was missing, but he followed Spock who had his tricorder out and was already scanning for said rays, and, finding something, lead the way away from the bar and into the docking area. In this section the smaller ships, merchant vessels, and shuttles were docked. The bigger starships, like Enterprise, were docked several decks above and on the other side of the starbase.
"It seems the doctor boarded a ship," Spock announced, "from the decay of the radiation I'd estimate, 55 minutes ago."
Boarded a ship? Why? And to where? Kirk turned around exasperatedly, flipping open his communicator, only to be halted by Spock once again.
"I suggest we not inform anyone else."
"And why, the hell, not?" Kirk was losing patience fast.
"As I hinted before, there may be people involved, as for example Captain Saluk, who have access to our communication and shiplogs that do not serve the interests of the Federation."
"Whose interests do THEY serve then, SPOCK?" Kirk shouted under his breath, in order not to catch any attention, "More Romulans?"
"Negative."
"Look, I don't care. One of my officers is missing. I will go and get him back."
"Of course, captain. However, it would be best if we were not detected by the one we're trying to catch."
"Bones?" Kirk was confused now.
"Captain Saluk. I believe he and the doctor are on their way to Meriah Five."
That blasted planet. Kirk cursed the day he sat foot on it for the second time in a week.
"Not the Enterprise then, and no logs. A shuttle will suffice?" he'd give up on trying to pry the truth out of Spock, for now.
"I would suggest a non-Federation vessel. One of these merchant ships …," Spock indicated the ships under them.
It was all Kirk could do to not explode. "Either you tell me NOW what you know, or we're going to take a shuttle. I'm not going to bargain with one of those shady merchants for his ship, while Bones is being kidnapped by a Vulcan double agent."
"As far as I'm informed, he's not a double agent, captain."
Kirk gave Spock a dirty look.
Spock inclined his head. "A shuttle will suffice."
(6) see Star Trek The Original Series "The Menagerie Part 1 + 2"
(7) ThanksMemory Beta! wiki/Anabolic_protoplaser
(8) I made this up, there are no Nieminen rays (at least not that I know of)
