Locked Gates – Part one

After finding himself on a planet in an instant, Jim Kirk blinked a few times and looked around. This wasn't the bridge. How did he get here?

All of the sudden he was here. No telling why! But where was here?

He was in a small cage with huge steel beams that rose over thirty feet in the air.

A man wearing a crème colored robe approached him. "Where am I?" he demanded.

The man's face remained expressionless, almost like a Vulcan. "You are on Devios. Where you shall remain until our testing is over."

Kirk's face drained slightly, his gut telling him something was utterly amiss.

"Testing…?" he said, not entirely wanting to know what was going to happen.

"The Devianae have been studying your race in the large star ships you have in order to judge the purpose of your existence. We have observed and are conducting an experiment between the reactions of crewmembers to your absence."

Kirk's face still seemed puzzled and slightly scared.

"We will be paying our attentions to certain crew members and for your personal comfort, we will provide you with the results of our studies. You will also be provided with food and water. I will be back at the morning hours." the man turned away silently, leaving Kirk, alone in this cage, to digest the information.

"What the hell just happened?" McCoy explained, staring at the empty spot where Kirk had been sitting less than a second ago.

Spock turned around, face composed. As he saw what McCoy was referring to, a flash of alarm passed through two dark brown eyes.

The entire bridge crew was looking at what was in the captain's chair. Or more correctly, what wasn't in the captain's chair.

"Where is the captain?" Spock said, brown lowering, distressed.

"He was here a minute ago, Mister Spock." Chekov reported, staring into the slowly fading imprint of James Kirk in the faux leather chair.

"Commence ship-wide search, Mr. Sulu."

"Aye sir." the Asian said with out question.

"Spock, why would he just leave duty-"

"Doctor McCoy, I do not know, but we will search the ship never the less." McCoy rolled his eyes.

"Guess it couldn't hurt." He said, giving in. Behind that though, was nervousness. This reminded him of the Triskelion fiasco. He had to suppress a shiver.

The bridge was quickly intently chattering or working, Spock giving orders.

"Check the transporter beam activity history, solar-wide search on planets in sector Gamma V, Secure all decks-"the list of things streaming from Spock's mouth at such high speed was crazy, but totally calm and determined.

The level of silent fear continued to shake the bridge, but everyone did as they were told, working furiously.

7 hours after the shift was over, Spock remained at the comm., adamant and stone faced as always.

"Spock?" A door of an elevator squealed open. Spock turned to see McCoy standing in the door way. "It's getting late. You've been working at this for hours…" his voice trailed off as he realized that he didn't want to think about how that they couldn't find Jim.

"Doctor, I will not stop my search-"

"Spock, it's not healthy for you to be up this late," Bones said and continued again as soon as he saw Spock's lips about to speak, "And Vulcan physiology my ass! I'm your Doctor and you need to get some sleep." He said, firmly and aggravated, then added in a softer voice. "You're going to need if for tomorrow's search."

Stubbornly, Spock got up, and joined Bones at the doorway. "I do hope that the Captain is not in danger." He said quietly.

"Knowing Jim, whoever's with him is in more danger than he is." McCoy laughed softly, trying to cover up his fear with humor. "I hope he's okay too."

For the fifteenth time, Kirk tried pulling his body up onto the bars and begin climbing. It was an impossible task. The tightly placed bars were too close to slip through, yet too widely spaced to support his foot.

And as much as he hated to admit it, McCoy was right…he had put on a few pounds. His six pack wasn't what it used to be. Yet he still got all the girls…

He sighed softly and suddenly felt annoyed and angry with himself for thinking of something so stupid at a time like this.

He was worried for his ship, desperately hoping everyone was okay and wanting to contact them, but he had neither communicator nor phaser to melt the bars, and why would he? If you were sitting in a command chair, there was no reason to be carrying weapons or communication devices.

Kirk's eyes floated, tempted, to the food, put in something resembling a dog bowl. Its contents were something that did –unfortunately- look like dog food, and greens. The greens themselves looked semi eatable, so he chewed on them for something to do.

Leaning his head against the opening, he found that, once again, they were sturdily locked gates.

Head up to the starry, black sky, he wondered if everyone was safe. If his friends were safe, and mostly, if Spock and McCoy were safe, and feeling alone and cold in this night, he balled up, arms inside of sleeves, knees tucked under chin, and shut his eyes in a restless sleep.

A/N: So, I had to write something, and I was listening to annoying pop songs. The song 'airplanes in the night sky like shooting stars' came from the radio. (No, I don't know the real title…) Airplanes…star ships. There's some feeling about that song that touched me, even though most pop songs are meaningless. Regardless, I feel I should credit where I got this idea. There will be reference to 'I could really use a wish right now.' So, please if you have ideas on where this story should lead, BE MY GUEST. Got no idea. Trying to make this a three part, not too long.

Please R&R!