Adrenaline combined with fear flooded through Spock's veins. He raced to his fallen Captains side, checked to see of he was wounded, and after finding nothing he slung the unconscious Jim over his shoulder.
"What happened?" McCoy asked when Spock had rejoined with him.
"I do not know. He simply collapsed." Spock answered.
"Well, humans don't usually collapse at any random moment, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say something's wrong with him." McCoy snapped.
"Snapping at me will not help the situation, Doctor. We must find shelter." Spock said calmly.
"There!" McCoy shouted after another minute of running. A small cave, big enough to give them some shelter from the war, entered Spock's vision and they ran inside.
After setting Jim down gently, Spock took off his shirt, ripped it in two, and put one half underneath the Captain's head, and the other underneath his feet.
"Thanks." McCoy breathed, distant, completely absorbed in scanning Jim with his medical tricorder. Slowing his breath to normal, Spock merely waited for McCoy to speak. If he tried too early, McCoy would simply snap at him again. Kirk was pale, yet his skin felt as if it were on fire.
"Damn." McCoy muttered. Spock's worry increased as the Doctor cursed again and again.
"He's got a fever of 40.5 (104.9), his breathing's shallow, his heartbeat is erratic, Goddamn it! I need him to awake for this." McCoy shouted, his worry very pronounced.
"I fear for him as well Doctor, but with his, for lack of a better word, condition he may not awaken for some time." Spock reasoned.
"Goddamn! I need him in sickbay, not stranded on some planet in the middle of a war!" McCoy yelled, reverting back to his Georgian speech pattern as his anxiety increased.
"Doctor, I believe this has happened before." Spock said, connecting what happened to the bridge to now.
"What? When?" McCoy demanded.
"On the bridge about one earthen week ago. When we had contact with the Prometheus. He was talking with Captain Santiago and he suddenly collapsed. He woke two point one minutes later." Spock explained.
"And why in hell didn't you take him to me immediately?" McCoy growled.
"Because he would not go. He merely said he had locked his knees. I thought no more of it since I know it to be a common human weakness." Spock answered calmly.
"Damn. Leave it to him to get sick and not tell us. Again." McCoy pouted.
"Now we must focus on leaving this planet. Spock to Enterprise." He said, opening his communicator.
"Spock? Where's the Captain? What's going on down there?" Scotty s voice, distorted by static, echoed through the cave.
"War has broken out. We require immediate beaming." Spock recited.
"And beam me and Kirk straight into sickbay!" McCoy shouted from over Spock's shoulder.
"You haven't answer me questions, Spock. Where is the Captain?" Scotty asked again. Scotty had never fully trusted Spock whenever Kirk wasn't around.
McCoy yanked the communicator from Spock and spoke into it. "Our beloved captain is unconscious from something he hasn't told us about. Again. Now for God's sake, beam us up already!"
"I cannot get a lock on you. The explosions are causing interference in our scanners. You have to get away from there. Once we get a lock, we'll beam you up right away." Scotty said through the static.
"Understood. Spock out." Spock said, taking the communicator back and ending the conversation.
"Doctor, try to rest. I will explore the surface to see if I can determine a safe way to travel." Spock said.
"Don't get killed, you green-blooded hobgoblin." McCoy responded.
War is atrocious, Spock already knew that to be true, but this, in the Captain's words, 'took it to a whole new level of nasty'. The war had only raged on for twenty-nine point eight minutes, but had already turned into the worst situation imaginable. Smoke burned at his eyes, nose, and throat, screams of terror tore at his ears, but Spock could see. After walking for an hour and forty-seven point three minutes, he found a passageway leading to an open field that was ten point five miles away from the cave. The war seemed to stop mauling his senses while he was there and he decided to bring the Captain here for evacuation.
When Spock reached the cave, it was deathly silent.
"Doctor? Captain? Doctor McCoy?" Spock called.
He found them, Jim still unconscious, and McCoy leaned against the wall, sleeping. The adrenaline rush of the escape must have worn off. Spock sat next to the Captain. Kirk was paler than before, his breath faster and shallower, and he was slightly thrashing. Spock took Jim's hand and rubbed in his thumb in a circle, which he knew to be soothing to the Captain. Jim stilled almost immediately, and seemed to sleep.
Three hours later, Spock was still in the same position he was earlier in a state of light mediation. He pulled himself out of it when he felt Jim thrash, hard. Snapping his eyes open, he found the Captain could not breathe.
"Doctor!" He shouted, waking the man with a start.
"Move." McCoy ordered and Spock followed. McCoy injected a hypo into the Captain's neck and Jim took in a huge breath but still did not wake.
"Damn that was close. I almost expected him to whine 'OW stop it!' like he always does." McCoy admitted.
Spock stayed silent. He could not contemplate a world without James T Kirk. He was cocky, selfish, arrogant, and crazy, or at least, that's what he wanted people to think. Really, he was kind, selfless, smart, caring, loving, but still crazy. He was someone Spock thankful for, a man who he considered a friend, someone he would gladly die for. Now, though, he may die before he had a chance to really 'live life', as Kirk always said.
"Spock? Spock, are you even listening to me?" McCoy was saying.
"I apologize Doctor. I was… thinking." Spock explained.
"I can see that. You had that look. Did you find anything?" McCoy asked.
"Yes, there is a clearing ten point five miles away from here that suits our needs." Spock relayed.
"Over ten miles? I'm not sure I want Jim out there for that long." McCoy said.
"We do not have a choice. If we want to get the Captain onto the ship, we must get to that clearing." Spock reasoned.
"That doesn't mean I have to like it. Can you carry him?" McCoy asked. Spock nodded and slid his hands underneath Jim's back and knees. Spock ignored the snort that came from McCoy, and proceeded to lead him to the clearing. Spock had his right hand always over the Captain's mouth, lest he have another respiratory attack. Jim coughed violently and gagged, but his breath never left him.
They walked nine point four miles before Spock heard McCoy's voice tugging at his ears. "Spock-have-sit-I-stop."
Spock stopped while McCoy caught his breath, which was rather hard to do. It was exhausting to the Vulcan as well, but he could not lose the Captain because he was too weak. He simply would not.
"Are you all right… Doctor?" Spock asked.
"Yeah… but its Jim I'm… worried about." McCoy coughed and did a semi check-up on him. Jim was not getting worse, but he was certainly not getting better.
Once they reached the clearing, the communicator beeped.
"Spock here." Spock said.
"Don't move." Scotty said, his voice now free of static.
The familiar, yet still unsettling in Bones' eyes, sensation of beaming filled them, and once again they were back on the Enterprise.
"What the bloody hell happened to you? You're covered in soot, your clothes are ripped to shreds, and your shoes have melted to the bloody ground!" Scotty shouted, and he was right. They had
As much as he got on Bones' nerves, Spock knew him very well, and simply nodded at him before rushing to sickbay, the Captain still unconscious in his arms. But he heard something only a doctor would hear: his breath was coming in pants. And McCoy didn't blame him. Going through all that, while carrying a 225-pound man must've been intense, even for a Vulcan.
McCoy comm. ed sick bay and told Nurse Chapel that he needed a stimulant, and a bed cleared for the Captain immediately. After he conveyed everything to her, he raced to his friend. Crashing through the doors to sickbay, McCoy found his breath leave in a 'whoosh'.