"Bones,"
"Don't! Don't you dare Bones me! What was Utoga saying and doing, stroking your ego, saying all the right things to make you feel invincible? You spent more time with him than with Spock. There, I said his name. Get rid of me too. You did not listen to him. You did not trust him. After all he had over the years you could not accept his actions when he was right. Was it his actions or the fact he saw you were being used and knew you were blind to the fact? Hell, none of us saw it at the time but we are not Spock. He tried to tell you in so many ways that he did not trust Utoga but I just bet that security officer got you to think Spock was jealous of all the time you were spending with that thing. I just bet that the Galvanian chief of security was having a laugh at his new puppet and how he got you to get Spock out of the way. We both know that Spock would be the last person to be jealous. We have seen how he does not mind you spending more time with others than with him and there has never been any jealousy nor envy. Whatever he was sensing about the man was right and you, you did not trust the man you so often said you trusted more than you trusted yourself."
"But he's,"
"He is in a very, very bad way and getting worse. He is in what they call a serious critical condition. They have him in a full regen tank, got him, according to Scotty, hooked up to everything they can and everywhere they can. They have not had experience with a Human/Vulcan hybrid like I have and I have sent them all the details I can that could help them but. Dammit! It was a blend of substances we have not encountered before and he is reacting to it as well as all the physical damage and the mental assault you carried out on him."
For a moment McCoy was quiet and stood with his head bowed but then looked right at him, "Scotty was there with the Base team when they got him out of what was left of the chamber, he tried to hold Scotty's hand when he said not to tell you, when he said T'hy'la and lost consciousness. I have the full team working with the Base's experts. From all test results he will be dead before we get to say goodbye. I will tell you what I told the others, we have to be prepared for a funeral service when we return. Scotty is there with him along with two of the science officers he had said show great promise."
"And Kirk there is no use trying to get them to leave. That Chief Engineer of yours actually pointed a phaser at one of my staff and myself when we tried to get him to leave. He's not in the way or anything it is just he keeps talking and singing to Mister Spock as though he can hear and respond. Our Chief Medical Officer has said there is no more they can do and he is beyond hearing anything which your Mister Scott called, and I quote, a load of what is found towards the anus of in a very constipated male bovine."
Kirk heard how McCoy was trying not to laugh and how Uhura giggled, "With, with all due respect, Sir, has your, your Chief Medical Officer had much experience with Vulcans?"
"No. It is just that Mister Scott is so insistent on not leaving and of keeping up a steady conversation."
Kirk saw McCoy smile at him and then at Uhura, "Mister Scott has experience with helping when Mister Spock has been injured. Just let him stay there. If Spock does hear something it best be a friendly and familiar voice. Am I to believe, knowing Mister Scott the way I do, that the two with him are there only to fill in when he needs a meal, to relieve himself, and for some sleep?"
"He does leave to relieve himself but he sleeps by the tank, has his meals there, as though afraid to leave Mister Spock alone. It is good that there will be someone with Mister Scott when the end comes as it was clear from reports about their work that they have a good relationship, and the way he is do determined to be close to him even now. I shall give you, Captain Kirk, a full report when you arrive. You are what, eight days out at warp two?"
Kirk saw McCoy slowly shake his head and close his eyes before looking at him again, then turning and walking away with Uhura at his side.
"Kirk?"
"Sorry, Sir, yes, eight days out. We could increase,"
"You forget you are not on the Enterprise, Captain? That ship will do a maximum of warp six for only a short period of time then drops out and is dead in space, you were informed of that when you were given the delivery mission. Also, regrettably from that I have been told, in a few hours there will be no need for you to arrive any sooner to see Mister Spock. As it is only medical personnel and those three officers from the Enterprise are allowed to see him. You two made a formidable team and the Enterprise the ship it was. If I may ask a more personal question, do you really want one of the last entries on his record to be, as you put it, hostile and deliberate insubordination?"
Hostile and deliberate insubordination. All Spock had been doing was trying to make him think about what was really happening, about seeing Utoga as what he really was and not the facade. Even hearing that he had groomed other captains into puppets did not please him. He had been taken in far too easily. The way he had made him feel and think. Damn! The way he had encouraged him to berate Spock. Spock. There, he had said the name. For weeks he had not said it nor allowed himself to think of it only that Vulcan. Just another one of millions. One of millions and the the one out of millions that he had been. No, was. He had to get to him. In a few hours, Kirk, there will be no need for you to arrive any sooner to see Mister Spock
He gripped the arms of his seat, "No, not, not that. That's, that's not Spock. I, I'll, we'll, I, I'll,." All he had said and done that day from when Spock had refused to comply with the first order to when he had filed his report came back to him in a rush.
He saw what he had so clearly missed, the way Utoga had a wide victorious smile on his face when he had said those things to Spock. It was what he had wanted, what he had planned, he had seen that smile vanish when Spock refused and walked off the bridge. That had not been planned. No wonder they had to dash away as soon as they docked they knew what they had done to his ship. They knew what would happen. Spock had been right. He had not trusted him.
"Kirk?" The voice was from outside his head but nothing mattered .
