Chapter 3

No infringement intended and the poem excerpt is from "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop.

"...- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) a disaster."

Jim Kirk knew that this was going to be one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do in his career and pausing for a moment, trying to put off the inevitable even if just for a few minutes, he thought back over the past ten days.

When he'd first been informed by Lieutenant Kyle that a member of the crew hadn't returned to the ship after shore-leave, and couldn't be contacted, he'd had a couple of names in mind for who the culprit might be, but Ensign Chekov hadn't been one of them. Sure, the young man had a youthful exuberance that sometimes got him into trouble, but he was also very conscientious regarding his duty and Jim had immediately felt a knot of worry begin gnawing at his gut. Instinct telling him something was wrong and Jim had learnt to trust his instincts.

When enquiries with the planetary authorities concerning the possibility of his missing Ensign either being in jail or in hospital had proved fruitless, and scans for Chekov's communicator had been negative, he had immediately requested search parties made up of locals and including members of the Enterprise crew. He hadn't been short of volunteers wanting to go down to the planet to help, the young Ensign being popular amongst his crewmates. First to volunteer had been Lieutenants Sulu and Uhura, both of whom had been riddled with guilt each blaming themselves for the situation. Sulu because he felt he should have looked after the younger man and not allowed him to leave the bar they'd been in alone, and Uhura because she'd persuaded Chekov to go on shore-leave in the first place. It pained Jim that over the ensuing days of fruitless searching he'd watched the guilt eat away at both his officers.

At first the search for the Ensign had centred on the area around the bar where Sulu had last seen him. Despite a strongly worded request from him the planetary authorities had refused to stop any ships from leaving orbit, unwilling to inconvenience other visitors to their world for what they insisted was merely a case of an AWOL young officer who would soon turn up after either falling asleep after drinking too much, or enjoying the company of a local woman.

After several hours of fruitless searching one of the search parties found a witness. A woman who having been up all night with an ill child had been looking out of her window when she'd seen a young man fitting Chekov's description disappearing down an alleyway near her home, but crucially she hadn't seen him re-emerge from the alley. A couple of security personal from Enterprise immediately found the remains of Chekov's communicator when they searched the alley and tricorder readings had indicated that a transporter beam had been used in the vicinity recently. Kirk had finally got the planetary authorities to suspend departures from orbit but by this time five ships had already left and any one of them could have his missing Ensign on board.

All five vessels had submitted their registrations, manifests and flight plans with the planet's authorities, and Enterprise had wasted no time in sending out an alert regarding the ships. Three of them had been tracked by Star Fleet and had been searched and cleared of any involvement in Chekov's disappearance. The other two ships had given false information and tracking them had proved ultimately impossible. Although that had not been for a lack of trying, with McCoy warning Kirk that several of the crew, including Uhura and Sulu, were working themselves to the point of exhaustion in their search for their missing friend. Kirk knew that as well as focusing on the search during their on-duty hours they were also in auxiliary control in their off-duty hours using the ship's scanners and science equipment to try and find a way of tracking the missing ships. Spock had managed to indentify and then track the warp signature of one of the ships, but as an illegal vessel it had many techniques for masking it's trail and had used them all, giving out a false warp signature, passing through a nearby nebula and eventually skirting an ion storm. Spock had pulled double shifts at his science station and then, Kirk knew, had gone down to auxiliary control to carry on his work using the famed ability of Vulcans to go without sleep for extended periods. Kirk himself had spent many hours in his cabin calling in every favour and marker he could think of trying to get extra resources, extra time for the search. However, those two mystery ships had eluded them.

Now time had run out. Kirk made his way to the bridge and found himself unable to meet the eyes of his officers as he sat in the command chair, knowing he was about to crush their hope and knowing that he had no choice. He had argued with Admiral Fitzgerald, coming close to insubordination, but had eventually had to give in to the inevitable, Enterprise was too important a ship to have out of commission, as Star Fleet saw it, for too long. On the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone Outpost Seven had reported picking up anomalous energy readings from within the Neutral Zone itself and Enterprise was to investigate, the search for it's missing Ensign would be carried on by what Admiral Fitzgerald had termed the 'appropriate authorities'. So reaching out and pressing the button to make a ship-wide broadcast Jim Kirk made one of the hardest announcements of his career,

"This is the Captain. I have just received orders from Star Fleet command that the Enterprise is to make it's way to Outpost Seven on the border of the Neutral Zone. The search for Ensign Chekov will be ongoing with Star Fleet dedicating resources and personnel to the effort, but the time has come for the Enterprise to return to duty with the fleet. I wanted you all to know how proud I have been of the time and effort which this crew has dedicated to the search for one of our own, and I know that we will not give up hope that one day in the future we will be able to bring Ensign Chekov home. Kirk out." Looking towards the helm he ordered "Lay in a course for Outpost Seven, warp factor four."

There was a hush over the bridge and for several seconds no one moved or spoke. It was Sulu who broken the silence, ever the professional officer, he seemed to shake himself slightly and murmured,

"Aye, sir."

Before turning back to his consol and complying with Kirk's orders.

Needing some time to himself Kirk stood and strode towards the turbolift saying,

"Spock, you have to bridge."

When the lift door closed behind him he let out a long breath, that he hadn't been aware that he'd been holding, and reaching up he rubbed a hand over his face suddenly feeling exhausted.

He hadn't been in his quarters for more then ten minutes before the door chimed and after his weary,

"Come in."

Opened to admit a serious looking Dr McCoy. For a moment Jim wanted to ask his friend to leave not up to listening to the doctor's rage at the injustice of Star Fleet at ordering the Enterprise away from the search. Instead of that though McCoy held up a bottle of Romulan Ale and in a quiet voice said,

"That can't have been easy."

Letting out a sigh Kirk replied,

"You have no idea," and reaching out he took the now full glass that his friend held out for him and tried very hard not to feel like he was abandoning his young ensign to God-knows what fate.