"I can't believe you did that, Bones!" Jim said as he was looking at Bones on the communication screen. "What were you thinking? I didn't even see you do it."
"I didn't want you to see it," Bones replied. "Besides, I didn't know she would blow her top."
"That is not the point."
"I was just trying to help you. You make sure you talk to that counselor today. I can't come over there anymore. She could have had me put in the brig, but she didn't."
"She reported you to Spock instead."
"Yeah. Sometimes I have a hard time knowing who's side he's on."
"Bones."
"Alright. I admit it. I might have stepped over the line a little this time, but I was tired of you lying there feeling like your skin is crawling."
"Don't say that. I'll be fine. I guess you can get your mind on something else."
"I'll try, but if anything happens over there, you call me."
"I'm in good hands."
"Maybe."
Jim chuckled at that. "I'll talk to you later," he said. "Kirk out." He ended the transmission and then frowned. His own best friend could not come and see him. Maybe he would talk to Dr. Flannigan about that, but he was sure she would be unmovable.
After three more days, Korax and Grakar arrived to visit Jim, along with Lolak. Of course, they had not seen Jim since the incident on Miridian VI. Spock called Jim to let him know that the Klingons were there to see him. "Are you comfortable with their visiting?" Spock asked.
"Yes, that'll be fine, Spock," Jim replied. He had found that talking things over with the counselor had helped him a great deal, and he was not feeling quite as anxious anymore.
"They have news for us, Jim."
Jim frowned. "What's that?"
"The colony on Miridian Six was not the only one these rogues have, Captain. The chancellor has gone into hiding and will be transferred to a Federation base. Only those who can be trusted will be allowed in his immediate vicinity. They intend to assassinate him, because if the chancellor dies, there will be a new one and it would be the next House no matter what their opinion is."
"I realize that."
"I fear this battle is not over yet, and you are considered an enemy of the Klingon Empire. I will let Korax and the others tell you more."
"Right."
Jim just sat there on the bed as the transmission ended. His therapist would even get him up to walk today. He could not imagine walking yet. It had been horrible just flexing that knee. It was mostly repaired now but was stiff and had to do more natural healing.
Soon, Korax, Grakar, and Lolak arrived to visit Jim. To say that the nurses were nervous seeing three Klingons arrive would have been an understatement. However, they were shown to Jim's room and allowed to go inside. Jim was sitting up on the bed when they came in. "Hi guys," he said for nothing better to say.
The three Klingons did their usual salute with the fist to the chest. "We wanted to see you ourselves," Grakar said.
"Well, thanks to you guys and my crew, I'm still alive," Jim replied. "I guess I didn't get to thank you before, but I'm thanking you now."
"You showed great courage. It is still puzzling how you escaped in such a condition."
Jim scowled at that. "Terror? I don't know. I think I was being driven by sheer terror."
"Perhaps. You had a reason to be fearful."
"I hear the war isn't over."
"No. It is far from over. I fear there will always be those who oppose the Klingons becoming part of the rest of the galaxy."
"Trust me, there are people in the Federation who oppose it as well, but they won't win."
"You will be up soon, I assume."
"I intend to be. I'm tired of being in this bed."
"You should be careful, young captain," Lolak said. "You will be a target."
Jim smiled at being called young captain, which was what Lolak had called him the whole time. "I will be careful."
"We have a suggestion," Korax declared.
"Oh? What's that?"
"I will join your crew."
Jim was surprised by that. "On the Enterprise?"
"Yes. I will be your bodyguard. No one will come near you without permission."
Jim figured Korax would be an even stricter bodyguard than Solan. "Well, I have several security officers on the ship," Jim said. "I'm not really worried when I'm on the Enterprise. It's when we visit planets."
"Then I will be there," Korax replied. "I will also be here."
"Did you get this idea from Bones?"
"You mean Doctor McCoy?"
"Yeah…Doctor McCoy."
"No."
"Okay."
"Your friend, Doctor McCoy, has an interesting outlook on life."
Jim almost laughed at that. He thought that was a mild way of putting it. "He's definitely unique," he said.
"I would join your circle of friends."
Jim thought about that: Spock, Bones, Solan…and Korax. "You already have," he said. "There may be a conflict with others, but I consider you guys my friends, and very trustworthy."
"You needn't worry about J'watok either," Grakar declared. "He has been punished."
Jim swallowed hard. He certainly did not want to know how he was punished. "I should be out of here in a few more days," he said. He looked at Korax. "You're welcome to be aboard the Enterprise, but you would have to go to the academy to be part of the crew. When Solan joined my crew, he had been to the academy before, and he was just one of those that didn't like all the rules."
"Much like you," Korax replied.
"I can't deny that."
Just then, Carol came into the room. The three Klingons saluted her as well. "Good morning," she said and walked over to Jim's bed. She kissed him and then set Alex on the bed.
"Morning," Jim replied. He smiled as he looked at Alex who was sitting up on his own now, and was just about ready to crawl.
"This is your little one," Korax said with a slight smile. "And your woman."
Carol started to say something about that, but Jim cleared his throat. He did not want to offend them. "She fought hard," Grakar said. "She is a warrior."
Jim tried not to smile about that too much as Carol folded her arms. "She was just angry cause they had her man in there," he said while he could get away with it. "She can't live without me." He knew he would be laughing right now if the three Klingons were not there.
Korax had become accustomed to human behavior and humor. He thought he rather enjoyed it himself. He would learn more when he started staying on the ship, he was sure. He was curious about human ways after all.
When the three Klingons left, Carol leaned over Jim and grabbed his hands. "Now, Carol, not in front of the baby," he said. "You know I'm injured."
"Jim Kirk, you sat there and let them call me your woman," she replied.
"What did you want me to say? Besides, I kinda liked it."
Jim loved teasing Carol for the reaction. She kissed him. "There was one thing you got right," she said.
"What's that?" Jim asked.
"I can't live without you."
"The feeling is mutual."
Jim was up and walking within a week, although not all the time, and not without a little pain. He was still wearing a brace and had to walk rather slowly for his taste. However, he had no intention of staying on the hospital ship any longer. He got into his captain's uniform, and waited for Dr. Flannigan to come and release him. She was soon there, as well as his therapist. "You must keep up your meds and make sure you do your exercises every day," Dr. Flannigan said. "And make sure Dr. McCoy knows if you have any severe pain." She frowned with that last statement.
That was one of the reasons Jim wanted out of there so much was because his best friend could not come over there. He had argued briefly with Dr. Flannigan about that, but it was her ship and she did not have to let McCoy on there. "Despite what you think of Bones, he is a good doctor," Jim said. "He just let his concern get the best of him."
"Maybe, but after being a doctor as long as he has, he should know better."
"Right."
Jim sometimes wondered if Dr. Flannigan was anything but a doctor. She did not seem to laugh or talk with anyone in any way other than about medical procedure. Bones could never be like that although he tried to pretend he did not need friends or anything. He had not said anything else about Andrea, and Jim had to wonder if he had let her go again.
When he was released, Jim walked out of his room, and Korax was waiting for him, along with Spock. "Captain, we are pleased that you are returning to the ship," Spock said.
"Thanks," Jim replied. "So am I."
Jim had agreed to let Korax stay on the Enterprise. He thought if anything could bring more stability between the Federation and the Klingons, it was having a Klingon onboard a Federation Starship. Plus, he kinda liked having Korax around. He thought Korax, Bones, and Spock could really have it out once they got going. He would just stand and laugh at them.
Bones met them as they were entering the Enterprise. "Jim, it's good to finally see you in the flesh," he said.
"You too, Bones," Jim replied.
"Now, let me scan the three of you to make sure you're not bringing some deadly virus onto the Enterprise."
Jim just shook his head. "I see you haven't changed any since you couldn't visit."
"Not a bit."
Bones finished his scans and they all went on into the ship. "So, we're gonna have a Klingon onboard," he said. "That should be interesting. Next time we meet up with some hostile species you can just let Korax stand and stare at them."
"If they are hostile, I will do more than stare," Korax replied.
Jim gave Bones his orders from the hospital ship. "I'm sure you can keep up with all that better than I can," he said.
"I'm sure I'll want to keep up with it more than you will," Bones replied. "Don't make me have to chase you around the ship. How's that knee feeling?"
"I'm not sure. It's not hurting much but it just feels weird."
"Well, maybe I can help you more now that the witch doctor is out of the way."
"Bones. She is not a witch doctor."
"You coulda fooled me. She locked me out of the ship and you didn't do anything about it."
"I couldn't. That's her ship."
"She reported me. Can you believe that? She told Spock what I did."
"Doctor, it was necessary that she tell me," Spock said. "You are fortunate that she did not report you to Starfleet headquarters."
"It's hard to imagine why she didn't."
"Because I asked her not to."
"Yeah, and I did too," Jim added. "Bones, you know you stepped over the line."
"Maybe I did, but I am a doctor," Bones declared. "Now that I am in control of your meds again, there will be no dreaded side effects."
"Thanks."
"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to discuss this schedule with my staff."
Jim glanced at Bones as he started down the corridor toward the medical bay. He knew Bones would be stricter than the ones on that hospital ship most likely. He went on to the Bridge.
"Captain on the Bridge!" John McCoy said. "Welcome back, Sir."
Jim thought he said that with a lot of enthusiasm. "Thank you," he said. "How's everything?"
"We're ready to go when you are, Sir," Sulu replied.
"Let's get out of here then."
Jim sat down in his chair, feeling it just a little too much as his knee bent. He thought he could feel right where the bones met, and he could not forget how much pain he felt when it was bent the wrong way.
Sulu looked around at him. "We'll detach as soon as you're ready, Sir," he said.
"Go ahead," Jim replied. He watched as they turned from the hospital ship into the emptiness of space, and the unknown again. He did not want to be apprehensive, but he could not keep it all away. "Take us to warp, Mister Sulu."
Jim watched the stars become lines and a swirling warp field as he sat there. "Captain, do you have a destination in mind?" Spock asked.
"Not yet," Jim replied. "Wherever it is, I hope we can avoid any conflicts."
"Yet, in our experience, we know that it is quite difficult to avoid conflicts when visiting new planets."
"But we'll try."
After three days, they came out of warp at a planet that was known as Argus X. "Captain, there is a large deposit of Tritanium ore, according to the scans," Spock said as they orbited the planet. "The planet is uninhabited, but is inhabitable."
"So we could go down and have a look," Jim replied.
"There does not appear to be any danger."
"That's good. Just what we need…a mission with no danger."
Jim knew he did not want to get into any dangerous situations that required him to run. His knee was well, but it was not completely well. It still bothered him when he walked a lot. However, he was ready to go down to this planet and see something different.
Bones, Spock, and Carol met Jim at the transporter room as the away team. Jim stepped onto the transporter pad, but before he said energize, Korax came into the room. He stepped onto the transporter pad. "I, too, will go with you, Captain," he said.
Jim just looked at Korax. He was in no mood to argue. He looked at Scotty. "Energize."
Scotty activated the transporter and watched Jim and the others disappear. He had gotten to know Korax while he had been on the ship, and he did not mind working and helping with things around the ship. He was sure Korax would be a formidable foe in a security situation.
Jim, Bones, Spock, Carol, and Korax appeared on the surface of Argus X. It was a rather barren landscape that looked almost like the landscape in Nevada. "Well, this looks familiar, doesn't it?" Jim asked, thinking it looked like the landscape when they ended up in the 19th century.
"I'll say," Bones replied. "You think the whole planet looks like this?"
"It is unlikely," Spock said. "We are simply on a plateau."
"Yeah, a miserable looking dusty landscape with nothing on it."
"Must you have such a bleak outlook. There is shrubbery."
"Oh, yeah, I almost missed it."
Jim shook his head. "Bones, do you have to be so sarcastic?" he asked as they were scanning the area.
"It is the only way he knows to be," Carol remarked.
"No it's not," Bones replied. "I'll just try to be quiet."
"That would be a great blessing," Korax added.
Jim almost laughed. Bones looked at Korax. "Yeah? Well, it might be a great blessing if you'd ask the next time before you hijack our away mission," Bones declared.
"I did not hijack it," Korax replied.
"Well, that's what I call it."
"You have many terms that are filled with ambiguity and confusion."
"Confusion? I'll have you know I know exactly what I'm saying."
Jim thought he was going to start bringing Korax along all the time. He gave Bones someone new to argue with. He looked at Korax who stood straight and tall and simply responded to what Bones said without looking a bit perplexed. Jim thought that was what pushed Bones over the edge most of the time. Now, rather than just Spock, he had a Klingon to argue with who knew just what to say to aggravate him. Korax had learned about Bones' dry sense of humor…or just plain pessimistic viewpoint. He was sure Bones did not intend for it to be humorous, but he was not sure all the time. He knew Bones talked like that sometimes to try and lighten the situation.
"What do you do when you hijack something?" Bones asked. "You get in where you weren't invited."
"I believe hijack means to take something over and change its destination to that of your own by force," Korax replied.
Jim almost laughed at the look on Bones' face as he stared at the Klingon. "Alright, fine," Bones said. "Maybe hijack wasn't the right word."
"I agree," Korax replied. "I simply…came along."
Bones stepped over a rock as he was still scanning, and Korax followed him. "Where I come from, words can have more than one meaning," Bones declared. "You use them in different ways."
"I suspect that you do this a great deal," Korax said.
Jim could not stop himself from laughing that time. He had heard Bones insult Spock before, but he thought he was getting it back from Korax. Although he was quite sure neither of them meant any of it as an insult.
"Are you saying that I just say whatever pops in my head?" Bones asked.
"That is a possibility," Korax replied. "I have never met an individual quite like you. As I learned the English language, I also learned the meaning of words, and how to use them."
"Oh, now you're saying I don't know how to talk. Are you insulting my parents?"
"No. I do not know your parents, therefore, I could not insult them."
"You're worse than Spock."
"How so?"
"You have an answer for everything. How'd you get so versed on our language anyway?"
"I had good teachers."
"From where?"
"They had been to many places."
"Right."
Just then, Jim's communicator chirped at him and Bones started picking up a reading on his medical tricorder. "Jim," he said.
"Captain, we're picking up a life form that wasn't there before," Scotty said over the communicator. "It seemed to just appear there."
"Life form?" Jim asked.
Bones was studying the reading on his tricorder, and Korax was observing as well. "Jim, there's something over here," Bones said.
Jim looked that way. "I'll talk to you later, Mister Scott," he said. He walked over to Bones. "What is it?"
"I'm not sure. It's not a human, and doesn't appear to have a definite form…" Bones paused. "Wait, now it…where did it go?"
"Where did what go?" Jim asked.
"There was something there. I'm telling you."
"Maybe it was some sort of energy surge from the planet."
Carol walked up beside them. "Energy surge?" she asked. "I haven't picked up anything. Why would it show on the medical tricorder if it was an energy surge?"
"That's a good question," Bones said.
Jim looked around them. "Well, there are no footprints out here," he pointed out. "So it doesn't look like anyone or any thing has been walking around out here."
They all began looking at the ground but there was no indication that anything had been walking on the ground. As they were looking around, Solan appeared in a swirl of light. "What are you doing down here?" Jim asked.
"I thought you might need a little more help," Solan replied.
"I guess we can split into twos now. And we thought this was going to be a simple mission."
"They're never simple," Bones said. "Haven't you learned that yet? I think anyone in this universe could come to a planet and not encounter any hostile beings but you just let us come along. Boy, they all come out of the woodwork."
"They probably hear you coming," Korax remarked.
Jim had to turn away to keep from bursting into laughter at that one. Carol managed not to laugh either. Spock raised an eyebrow. "That was a truthful statement," he said.
Solan did not hold back his laughter, however. Bones looked at him. "Go ahead and laugh," he said.
"You bring it on yourself," Solan replied.
"I do not."
Jim looked out across the barren looking landscape of rocks and red dirt. "It doesn't look like anything has been around here," he said. He looked at the others. "Solan, go with Spock. Bones, you and Korax go that way. Carol and I will go this way."
"Thanks a lot," Bones said.
"You know you need someone to contradict you," Jim said as he passed by Bones with a grin.
Bones just stood there a moment and then looked at Korax. "Come on," he said and stalked off in the direction Jim had indicated.
Jim and Carol went around the side of a rocky outcropping, and he was laughing to himself. "You just think the whole thing is hilarious, don't you?" Carol asked.
"I do," Jim replied. "You have to admit, Bones is a comedian in his own way."
"If you like that sort of humor."
"What would we do without him?"
"I'm sure the trip would be rather boring."
They were silent a moment as they walked and scanned the area. "Do you know that he and Andrea haven't spoken to each other again since the day he confronted her in the holodeck?" Carol asked.
Jim looked at her. "No," he said. "How do you know that?"
"She told me. I don't know how two people can avoid each other on the Enterprise, but those two have managed to do it."
"He never says anything about it. I guess I just thought he was keeping it to himself."
"Don't you find it odd that he was so jealous, but yet he can't bring himself to love someone or let them love him?"
"Carol. That is not our business."
"You're his friend, aren't you?"
"Yes, but…"
"Then why don't you know these things?"
"I guess women talk about it more than men."
"That is a sexist remark. Are you saying that we gossip?"
"No. I'm saying you probably talk about relationships more." Jim paused a moment. "What else did she tell you?"
"You're curious?" Carol asked.
"You made me curious."
"That was girl talk. Are you sure you want to hear it?"
"Carol. I have heard a lot of girl talk since I married you. You tell me everything, you know."
"That's just an easy way out."
"Come on. Are you keeping secrets from me?"
"Only those divulged during girl talk."
Just then, Jim's communicator chirped again. "Kirk here," he said.
"Jim, I'm picking up that reading again," Bones replied. "There's something out here."
"Do you see it?"
"No…"
Just then, there was a lot of static on the communicator. "Bones?" Jim said. All he got was static. He looked at Carol. "Let's go."
