A/N: A big thanks to all reviews for the previous chapter! Right, no attack on Spock or McCoy this chapter, though that doesn't exactly means it's all peaceful...
Disclaimer; I do not own Star Trek nor the characters, places, technologies, species, or ideas therein.
"What is this about, M'Benga?" McCoy demanded. Nurse Chapel had asked curiously why M'Benga had asked Spock back to Sickbay, and McCoy suspected the other doctor might be under the Romulan's hold.
"There is such a thing as doctor patient confidentiality," M'Benga said patiently. "I'm sorry, Sir, but I can't say a word."
"I'm Chief Medical Officer onboard this ship, don't try and tell me that, I have right to all the crews medical history. I could order you to tell me."
"But you won't. You're CMO, but you're also his friend, Sir, don't just tell me it's all professional. The Commander has a right to his privacy, too. I assure you if I find it necessary, I'll consult you, but it really is a private matter."
"Spock doesn't even know what this is about!"
"And once he does, Sir, he'll understand why I'm not talking."
Ensign Harril was so absorbed with the padd he was reading that he tripped over a rather large object on the floor. He fell, swearing as his padd flew across the hall. Thankfully, no one else in the out-of-the-way hall from Engineering had been present to see his fall. He rolled over, looking back to see what he had tripped over.
His eyes bulged.
Scrambling up, he checked the pulse of the blue-shirted female on the ground. Still alive. But why unconscious? A quick check told him there wasn't a mark on her. Hastily, he rose. There wasn't a comm. panel in this hall, but that didn't matter. He pelted down the narrow hall to Engineering, no one even noticing him as he stumbled out, running for the startled chief engineer.
"Sir!"
" ...feel after the first incident?"
"Feelings are irrelevant. I am Vulcan."
Do not roll your eyes, do not roll your eyes.
"Yes, Sir, you are, but you do have feelings."
"Irrelevant."
Do not roll your eyes and/or chuck anything.
"At the moment, Sir, they are very relevant. Sir... may I call you Spock? You can - "
"No."
"...Right. Well. Sir, then, you do understand that to evaluate your well-being after the last week, it really is necessary for you to examine your emotions."
A glare. "I have, in my quarters, privately. Therefore this is unnecesarry. May I leave?"
Don't roll your eyes and/or kill your superior... Bad idea, bad idea...
"No, Sir. While I'm sure it may have helped you to examine your emotions, it is my job to see if you are mentally well."
Flatly; "I am."
Do NOT roll your eyes...
"I'm sure you think that, Sir, but most people don't exactly realize that they aren't. Which, again, is why you need to talk to a doctor."
Silent glare.
M'Benga tried again.
"Sir, please tell me what emotions you felt during and after the attack."
"I do not recall what I felt during the attack, as I remember only small fragments of the encounter," Spock said icily. "But for a moment of surprise at the beginning, I can supply no other details of the encounter, except intense pain throughout."
"And after?"
"Clarify."
Do not roll your eyes or kill the irritating Vulcan...
"I'm not sure what I'm s'posed to clarify, Sir."
"'After' the attack could refer to anytime between the attack and this moment, but I highly doubt that is what you mean."
"I think you know what I mean, Sir."
Eyebrow raise.
"Sir," said M'Benga - when had he gotten so impatient? He blamed McCoy. Unless he wanted a messy death by means of pissy Vulcans, though... "Please relate to me what occurred the morning after the attack."
"I awoke in Sickbay not completely lucid, and recalling the attack struggled against the nurses, yourself, and Doctor McCoy. The doctor called my name, I became fully cohesive, and stopped struggling. What the Doctor knew of the circumstances was related to me. It was decided that all crewmembers would take psi-tests. The Captain entered. I experienced instinctually negative reactions to his presence as a result, intended or not, of the aforementioned attack in my quarters, and the Doctor had the captain leave. Reasons for the reaction were speculated, to no conclusion. Doctor McCoy exited, and I meditated."
M'Benga waited.
Spock waited.
"...Is that it?"
A placid blink. "Nothing else of note occurred, Doctor."
Do not roll your eyes or use those curses McCoy was using... He can call Mr. Spock an idiot without reprimand, you can't.
"That was... not quite what I meant, Sir. Please relate what emotions you felt in the morning."
"Irrelevant."
Oh. My. God.
"Very relevant, Sir, and it is highly illogical to keep calling it irrelevant, and refusing to answer, because in the end you will explain if you ever want to get out of here, so you eventually need to humor the crazy human doctor. Might as well be sooner rather than later."
Extended close proximity to McCoy hadn't precisely taught M'Benga to adopt a better temperament. Furthermore, he still retained a good sense of logical arguments to argue with Vulcans, due to his long-ago internship. The combination seemed to surprise the Vulcan a little. He said nothing, but eyed M'Benga a long moment.
A bit of hope kindled in his chest. Was the stubborn Vulcan finally going to -
"Kirk to Spock."
Oh, no.
The Vulcan practically jumped to his feet.
No emotion, huh?
"Spock here, Sir."
"Meet me in Sickbay, there's been an attack from our little friend, on one of your ensigns this time."
"Indeed?" His eyebrows rose. "I will be there momentarily, Spock out."
And before M'Benga could get in a word, he left.
"..." Groaning, he rolled his eyes and leaned back.
...Yeah, I'm gonna die.
Spock joined Kirk and McCoy in main Sickbay, noting that the doctor his giving him a rather perturbed look, seeming deep in thought. Spock decided not to dwell on that too much, instead looking at the captain inquiringly.
"Sir?"
The captain looked grim. "Ensign Yoris was found in one of the out-of-the-way parts of Engineering. At the moment, she seems catatonic. Speculations?"
Spock tilted his head. "It is possible, of course, that the Romulan did not intend to do such severe damage."
"He wouldn't notice what he was doing?" McCoy asked skeptically.
"I did say possible, Doctor, though not likely. Based upon my experiences with the Romulan, I would agree that the Romulan's control is too great for such a mistake. Therefore, it is more probable that this was meant as an intimidation tactic against the crew. It is also plausible that Ensign Yoris, being in Science, was attacked for more thorough knowledge for reference for future assaults upon the Doctor or myself; it seems quite a coincidence that the next one attacked was also in Sciences, and I can think of no reason she would be a victim due to any other knowledge she retained that this Romulan may have interest in."
"Agreed." Kirk pursed his lips. "Spock, I hate to ask this..."
"You wish me to use a mind-meld on this ensign as well," Spock deduced, resignedly.
Kirk looked hesitant and McCoy frowned, obviously thinking over the implications of having Spock merge minds with someone practically mindless at the moment, but Spock merely nodded, even as his mind balked at the thought. Nonetheless, he understood the necessity, so he approached the ensign on the biobed. Her face was blank, eye staring up past the ceiling, unmoving. Were it not for the faint rise and fall of her chest she could have been mistaken for dead.
He stood over her, carefully situated his fingers over her psi-points, and closes his eyes - but this meld is nothing like the previous ensign's.
A yawning chasm, bleak and dark and somehow deep and endless but pressing into him, all around, consuming his mind-presence. His heart explodes into action, and a terror he can't articulate shoots through him, the first tendrils of madness wrapping about Spock. Dazedly, his mind tries to remember - memories, yes, of the attack, where are her memories? Thoughtlessly he delves deeper into the nothingness, but all there is is empty space and silence and black, black, black. His mind twists, turns, panics, but there's no memories here to see, just oppressing blankness weighing on him, and then it has him.
He come to with a strangled gasp, eye wide, forgetting himself. He's been disconnected from her for at least a minute or so, but no more. He half-laying on something warm and firm, and he blinks uncomprehendingly at the gold-haired male human who leans over him. A few others in blue hover behind the male, watching him.
"Spock?" The words are distant. He stares at the human blankly.
More sounds, coming from above and behind him, and the thing his back is pressed against is vibrating. It takes a minute, but he realizes that it is another lifeform, human maybe also, and he's speaking too. He makes the same sounds, over and over, but they don't make any sense.
"Damn it damn it damn it!"
There's a whirring thing in the hand of the one he's laying on, and he blinks at this, too.
"I don't know what's wrong with him, Jim, get..."
But wait, yes... he knows that voice...
Blearily; "Doctor?"
The speaking-sounds stop a moment, and the person in front of him leans forward, eyes bright. "Spock?"
It takes a long moment, and the man's hopeful look begins to fade. "...Captain?" His voice is uncertain, and that's not right somehow, but the male looks so relieved that he shakes away the wrongness.
"Do you know where you are?"
He's understanding the words easier, and this answer is simpler, too. "Negative."
The man - Captainjamestkirkjim - his mind tells him - looks let down by this, and the presence behind him shifts. It helps him into a sitting position, and not consulting the other two he by instinct steeples his fingers, taking a careful breath, and falls into a swift meditation. He can still feel their presence in the room.
His memories come back swiftly enough, and in just a few minutes he is standing, Doctor McCoy rushing to his side. "I am well," he tells the Doctor, though he can not say the doctor's worries are unwarranted, after that display. He turns to the captain.
"I apologize, Captain. If I may attempt again - "
"No." It's so firm that Spock pauses, taken aback. "Don't even think about it. What was that?"
"Did you know that was going to happen?" McCoy demanded, taking his medical tricorder over Spock again.
"Negative."
He had a feeling they didn't quite believe him.
The captain, looking rather exasperated with his first's stubborness and also relieved, went to the bridge as McCoy fussed. Not long after his voice was heard on the speaker.
"There has been an attack by the Romulan spy on Ensign Yoris. She has been left catatonic and presumably will not recover. In light of this..."
He outlined several suggestions to make attack less likely. Always stay with at minimum one other. Alert a senior officer if anyone behaved unusually. He described the jumping-out-of-the-way phenomenon McCoy had noted, instructing the crew to report instances of this, as well. Giotto was summoned to the briefing room.
McCoy was silent long enough to listen to these and other instructions, then continued haranguing Spock. "Damn fool, you predicted that something was going to happen, didn't you?" Spock did not answer, sensing that it was rhetorical. "I swear, sometimes I think you're just suicidal or do these things on purpose to get at me - you can remember everything now?"
"Affirmative, Doctor."
"No physical effects?"
"Negative, Doctor."
"Hmmph." McCoy eyes him. "I swear, with all the trouble you've been attracting - " He cut himself off, shaking his head angrily. "Go get some sleep."
"Unnecessary. I - "
"Go. Get. Some. Sleep." McCoy gives him a dangerous glower, but a polite cough makes them both look up.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but I really do need to talk over a few more things with the Commander." M'Benga says smoothly.
"I am quite sure that it is not urgent," Spock says, hoping he does not sound flustered. "McCoy is correct, I shall go to my quarters at once."
The CMO narrows his eyes suspiciously, but Spock is gone before he can get out a question. He turns around, just in time to see the door slide shut after M'Benga.
Kirk stared at the report before him on the bridge after finishing the instructions to the crew, mind working furiously.
Repeated malfunctions. Several of the times were around when... It couldn't be that simple, or that complicated. It didn't make any sense. Surely they would realize something was there?
Well, only one way to find out.
"Kirk to Giotto."
"Giotto here."
"Meet me in the briefing room."
Giotto met the Captain, and as soon as the Chief of Security entered Kirk exited, beckoning the guard to catch up. "I didn't want to announce this over the intercom, he could be onboard." His eyes darted around the empty corridor they walked into. Heck, he could be right next to them. "Get five of your best guards, quietly, and meet me at airlock 3."
"Sir?" The airlock?
"Immediately."
"Yes Sir!"
Kirk stopped by Engineering to apprise Scotty of his theory, in case something happened, not wanting to tell Spock as he knew his first officer would insist on coming along. He armed himself, then met Giotto and the five puzzled guards outside the airlock.
"Phaser on stun." He looked at them seriously. "I believe there is an invisible vessel attached to this airlock that is not showing up on our sensors.
Giotto blinked.
The guards blinked.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
He decided not to try and explain further - that didn't really matter. Instead he merely went to the controls for the airlock, then opened the door past the one seperating the inside of the airlock from space. Of the door that should have been seperating them from space.
The vision, instead of staying the serene picture of stars, was suddenly the inside of a very small ship, and Giotto's eyes widened at the picture. Without pause Kirk opened the inner hatch and jumped through.
Yes!
The Romulan! He shot at it, the red beam hitting the wall with the high-pitched cry of a phaser as the Romulan ducked - then vanished.
"Shoot everywhere!" He shouted to the guards. "You can't see him!"
He himself shot randomly inside the tiny vessel, and he heard the phaser-whines from behind him as the guards randomly shot at empty spaces. There was a startled cry and he spun around, exalted, only for his heart to plummet as he saw one of the guards on the ground, a gaping wound in his chest, and the guards shooting more frantically than ever. He joined them, but after a moment holstered his phaser in disgust.
"Ceasefire!"
The guards immediately did so, though they still held their phasers ready, looking at him bleakly. He took a deep breath himself.
"Giotto, have this area guarded well, and rig up something to... have someone set up to monitor life signs for the entrance to this area, then post guards. I'll send Scotty and an Engineer or two down, but besides him and Security I don't want anyone besides myself or Mr. Spock here." Giotto nodded, and Kirk sighed, looking around the innocently quiet halls with something akin to despair.
The ship didn't have anything to scan all lifeforms on the ships, not all at once. Each level had to be scanned slowly and individually. If they managed to find the area the Romulan was at, he could flee to another and they would have to hope they were lucky again. This would take some complicated security procedures, and that section was going to be stretched thin to catch this bastard. If they caught him.
Poor M'Benga! Reviews?
