The Infinity Particle
Chapter 8
"...it'll be this kind of deep blue.
The kind of color that somehow sucks your eyes
and your ears and all your words..."
Banana Yoshimoto
Jim, standing in front of Spock in the Fleet lab, clenched his hands into fists behind his back. He sighed in frustration. His talk with Spock was not going particularly well, Spock was insisting that he would be perfectly safe both in the lab and getting back to the house alone. He did not, as he told Jim, in that particularly monotone voice he used when he was irritated, agree with him that he needed Dr. McCoy's presence to remain safe. Vulcan strength and stamina, keen hearing, and exceptional eyesight would prove to be more than adequate to guarantee his safety. Also, he had just completed his initial review of the terra forming team's DNA preliminary data and was now getting into his own deeper research. It would not be logical to cease his research at this particular time.
Trying to convince Spock was proving to be futile, and keeping his patience was also proving to be difficult. So to put an end to the discussion, Jim decided he had no choice but to make it a direct order. Spock would have no choice but to acquiesce to a direct order.
"I also want you and Bones to leave here at a reasonable hour, Spock. Bones needs his rest, even if you don't. He's hardly left Ma's side since he got here. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Captain. I will..."
His comm beeped interrupting whatever Spock was going to say. It was Bones.
"Jim, your Ma wants to see you right away." Bones' voice was calm. "Don't want you to worry, she's fine. She's responding very well to the meds for dizziness and for headache. She woke up from her nap, and insisted pretty strongly that I comm you and if you were still close by to come back. I told her you were going to the lab to see Spock, so I was sure you were still around. Tom and I don't want her to get agitated, so I'm commin' you. Are you still on site?"
"Yeah, I'm still at the lab talking to Spock. Tell Ma I'll be right there, Bones."
He closed his comm to see a faint rise to Spock's eyebrow. "Is Dr. Kirk all right, Captain?"
"I think so, Spock. Bones said so, but Ma wants to talk to me. We'll debrief later about your research progress. After I speak with Ma, I'm going back to the Fleet house to meet with Gavin, Lt Sonnai Connolly, and Uhura about finding the identity of the men who flew the shuttle. This evening I'm bringing Peter and T'Lane to visit with Ma, and she'll have a lot of company, so I'll stop by for your debrief while they're visiting.
"As you wish, Sir. Please give my regards to Dr. Kirk. I hope her improvement continues," Spock said stiffly, obviously still displeased.
"Thank you, Spock, I will," Jim said, sighing internally, deciding to disregard Spock's miff.
Jim headed back quickly to Winona's room wondering what his mother wanted to talk to him about. The security officers looked faintly surprised to see him back so soon, but one of them opened the door for him.
Winona was sitting up in the bio bed and stretched out her hands to him. "Jim dear. Thank you for coming back. I didn't want to speak to you about this over the comm."
Jim grasped her hands tightly. "It's fine, Ma, I'm here now. What is it? What did you want to tell me?" He glanced a question at Leonard who was standing against the wall watching them. Tom was not anywhere in the room. Leonard shrugged his shoulders at Jim's glance. He didn't know what Winona wanted to tell Jim either.
Winona disengaged one hand and rubbed her forehead. Jim looked at her anxiously, then at Bones. "Is your headache worse, Ma?"
"No, dear, it's better. The medicine Tom and Leonard gave me helped my head ache, but it made me sleepy, so I took a nap. I woke up a little while ago, but not fully, you know that stage of wakefulness where you're half asleep and half awake?"
Jim nodded, still grasping her hand tightly.
"All of a sudden, as I was l lying there, I remembered something. One of the men, the one who raised his phaser and stunned me, you know they wore hoods that covered their faces, that man, when he raised his arm, his sleeve drew back a little from his arm, and I caught a glimpse of skin before he fired, it was blue, Jim his arm was blue. He was Andorian!"
"An Andorian! Are you sure, Ma?"
"I'm sure," she said. "I'm a Xenobiologist, Jim. I know skin tones. He was Andorian. There's no mistaking that bright blue color. No other humanoid species that we know of has skin that shade of blue...blue blood, blue skin. I didn't see the white hair or the antennae on him, but I'm certain he was Andorian."
"Anything else you remember?"
"No, dear, not yet." She glanced over to Leonard. "It's a good sign, isn't it Len, that I've remembered something more?"
The doctor came over to the bed, and glanced at Jim reassuringly. "It's a very good sign, Winona. It'll all come back to you, a little at a time, but it will come back. Tom and I are very pleased with your progress."
"By the way, where is Tom?" Jim asked, missing the doctor who had been by his mother' bedside since she'd been admitted.
"He has a new patient to see. Had to go check on her."
"Ma, if you remember anything else, Just comm me and I'll come right back. You were right not to talk about this on the comm. I'm going back to the Fleet house for a while, so I'll be available. Bye, Ma, I'll see you this evening if not before." He bent and kissed the soft cheek.
"All right, dear. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone this evening."
"Bones, a word?" Jim led Leonard out to the hallway, away from the security officers to stand in front of a door labeled 'Bot Janitorial Supplies'. He kept his voice low as he told Bones about Spock's reaction to leaving the hospital together. Jim shook his head. "I finally had to make it an order, Bones. I told him you and Tom, or just you, if Tom has a late shift, would comm when you were ready to leave. He'll leave with you. Make sure you both take your phasers when you leave the lab, and have it easily accessible on your way to shuttle parking."
"Jim, you really think all this is necessary?"
"Gavin and I both think so, Bones. We have no way of knowing how much more information about the plant DNA research is out there. Somehow they found out about Ma, so who's to say they won't find out about Spock or you when you start to help him with the research."
"I guess you're right. We'll be careful. Just hope Spock doesn't get stubborn on me."
"Just remind him you're both under orders. I gotta go, Bones. Gavin, Uhura and Sonnai will be waiting for me. I'll fill them in about the Andorian. Ma is doing better, isn't she?"
"Yeah, she is, Jim. It's a real good sign she's remembering stuff."
Jim sighed his relief. "Okay then, see you later. I'll bring dinner for everyone."
"Jim! You don't have to do that, we'll order from the hospital cafeteria."
"Nope, I want to." And with that Jim took off to meet with Gavin and Sonnai.
He brought his shuttle down and saw that Gavin's shuttle was already parked in front of the house. When he walked into the living room, he heard Sonnai and Uhura already deep in conversation about encryption codes.
Sonnai stood. "Captain Kirk, 'tis good to see you again," he smiled at Jim, shaking his hand.
"Likewise, Lt. Connolly," Jim responded cordially. He liked the young officer with the faint Irish brogue clinging to his speech. The Lieutenant was unassuming, pleasant and warm in his manner, and besides that, he was brilliant at codes and encryptions.
"I just came from the hospital and I have some important news Ma suddenly remembered something when she woke up earlier. She told me that one of the men who broke into her office was an Andorian. She saw his blue skin when he raised his arm to fire at her and his sleeve rode up."
Gavin whistled. "An Andorian. Well that's a game changer right there and a little more to go on. I wonder if he was for hire or working for himself," he mused.
"A good question, Gavin. Sonnai, Uhura, that's something else for you to find out once you have the name of the shuttle renters. Andorian names are very distinctive, shouldn't be that hard to find out something about him."
"That they are, Captain. We were just about to begin working on the encryption code. I have no way of knowing how long this will take...it depends on how sophisticated the shuttle company's software is," Uhura told him.
"I'll leave you two to it then. I need to make a quick trip to the farm. Mom is going to need more clothes and so will Peter. There's no way they're going back to the farm until this is all over. I'll drop in to Jonathon's Office to update him. I'll be back later this afternoon, pick up dinner and collect Peter and T'Lane. We'll meet you, Violet and Davy in Ma's room, Gavin."
"Jim, let me pick up dinner. You'll be pressed for time, I'll be happy to do it."
"Thanks, Gavin that would be a help. I thought of hamburgers and fries for everyone. Be sure T'Lane's is a soy burger, okay? Oh, and please pick up a couple of burgers for the Security Officers. I promised them." He dug out a credit chip and tried to hand it to Gavin.
Gavin shook his head. "My treat, Jim. After all the times your mom has fed me, I'm happy to do it. How about you two?" he asked Uhura and Sonnai.
Uhura and Sonnai looked at each other. "We'll order something when we get hungry," Sonnai responded for them both.
"I've got to get back to my office. Keep me posted on your progress, Lieutenant Connolly."
"Yes, Commander."
Jim boarded his shuttle and put in the coordinates for Riverside. He ascended quickly above the Earth's atmosphere for his flight. At warp 1 he'd be there in 20 minutes or so. Warp flying was illegal within the Earth's atmosphere because vehicles in warp flew in a quantum "other space" and not real space and could not be seen in real space. The flight, although not long, would give him a little bit of quiet time to think, so far they were getting nowhere fast on this mission. A lot depended on Sonnai and Uhura finding the rental shuttle's passengers' names and on his mother remembering anything else. It had been a stroke of luck that she had even seen and remembered the skin color of the Andorian shooter. How had an Andorian gotten involved in all this?
True Andorians were a volatile species, testy and quick to take offense as many Starfleet officers and diplomats could attest to. They had a genetic predisposition toward violent behavior and it was only their rigid and highly structured society rules which helped to tame their quick tempers. Andorians seemed to bottle up their rage when they traveled across the galaxy to other worlds to interact with other species, and, for the most part, managed to contain themselves in public, but sometime they erupted into violent outbursts, much to the consternation of Vulcans who sat on the Federation Council with them. It was a genetic trait; their bio-chemistry induced these reactions to fight in order to increase their sensory input levels, which, in turn, led to them having great abilities at analysis and reasoning. This, the Vulcans did admire in the Andorian species.
Still, Jim mused, the fact that an Andorian was involved put a new spin on the puzzle of who was behind the attempted theft. Had the attempt been at the behest of the Andor Planetary Ruling Council? Or was it a paid-for-hire attempt, a lone wolf Andorian who was being paid for acquiring the chip, or was it an Earth, Andorian or other world corporation or pharmaceutical company behind the attempts? His mother had only seen one blue skinned burglar, but was the other man an Andorian too? Jim sighed...way too many questions and not a single answer.
His coordinates indicated he was over Riverside. When he'd commed Jonathon before he took off, the Chief had told Jim they could meet at the farm instead of his office. The less people who saw Jim, the better.
Jim popped out of warp high up in the atmosphere. This was Iowa farm country, no need to spook the cows and horses the farmers had out grazing. He slowed down to low impulse speed and ascended to the back field where all the Kirks and their guests had always parked their shuttles.
The farm and barn looked peaceful and undisturbed. Jim decided that while he waited for Jonathon he'd go into the house and pack up a few more clothes for his mother and for Peter. He walked to the back door and put in the access code to lower the Security shield. He'd leave it down for Jonathon. Before leaving the farm he'd check on the animals, give them enough food and water to last them until tomorrow morning and that would save Mr. Thompson and Jonathan's Officer a trip this afternoon.
He walked into the homey kitchen. It had always been the heart of the farmhouse even back in his grandparents and great grandparent's time. Jim knew it was only his imagination, but despite the sunshine streaming in through the window, the room looked gloomy and depressing without the warm, smiling presence of his mother.
He turned on lights as he went, even though it was early afternoon and not really necessary. In his mother's bedroom he found a large tote bag and put in a couple of more changes of clothing for her, then did the same in Peter's room. He shook his head as he saw the pile of Sorrel's cat toys in Peter's room, so he picked up a few more toys for the spoiled kitty too. He'd get a grocery bag from the kitchen to put them in.
He heard a noise coming from the kitchen and called out, "Jonathon?"
"Yeah, it's me, Jim. What are you doing? And you shouldn't have left the back door unlocked," Jonathon told him, meeting him in the hallway. "Anyone could have come in."
"That's sort of what I was hoping for," Jim said. "I have my phaser and it would have been a fast and easy way to apprehend whoever broke into the house to steal that DNA data."
Jonathon shook his head, his face somber "Not a good idea in my book, Jim. We don't know who these guys really are, or how ruthless they may be. You could have been outnumbered, or you could have been shot like your mom. I know I sound like a cautious police officer, and you've probably been in many such confrontations, but it wasn't a good idea. Think about Peter and about your mother if you'd been hurt"
Jim bristled for a moment. He was a trained Starfleet Officer; he could take care of himself, and had done so many times in firefights, hand to hand combat, and even in prison cells. He looked at Jonathon his hazel eyes flashing with ire, but Jonathon looked back at him steadily, not backing down an inch.
Jim finally looked down. "Yeah, you're right, Jonathon. It was a bad impulse. I'm just frustrated. So far we haven't made any progress at all on this mission and Admiral Nogura is worried and pressing for answers."
Jonathon sighed. "I know, Jim, we're all frustrated. It's proving to be extremely difficult to find out anything about who these guys are. I'm pinning my hopes on Uhura."
"Speaking of Uhura, she's gotten some help." Jim updated him about his meeting with the Admirals and about Gavin bringing in Lt. Sonnai Connolly to help Uhura and about their attempts to break the management company's encryption.
"Good." Jonathon looked pleased. "It's a good thing that Uhura's gotten help. I don't have the resources or the man power to devote a full time person to the search, and I was constrained by the secrecy of your mission and not revealing too much about the reason for the break in." He followed Jim to the kitchen and they both looked around carefully. All was as it should be. They exited the house and Jim put up the security shield.
"I'm going to feed the animals, Jonathon. It will save Mr. Thompson and your officer a visit."
"I'll feed the chickens," Jonathon told him, and started laughing. Jim looked at him quizzically. "Remember how Sam hated to feed the chickens? He said they just didn't like him and tried to peck him every time he went in the coop. He was always trying to get me to do it for him." He shook his head. "I usually would do it for him, sucker that I was," he added ruefully.
Jim laughed, remembering. "He was always trying to get me to do it too; he'd ask me to trade chores with him. He would feed Ginger and Dapple instead if I'd feed the chickens. I usually did it too." Jim felt that familiar ache in his chest at the thought of Sam, the best big brother possible, and Jonathon's best friend all through school. The acute grief and pain were gone now, but there would always be a huge hole in his heart for his dead brother. "Between the two of us, it's a wonder he ever fed the chickens," Jim smiled.
They made quick work of taking care of the animals. Jim chatted with the old horse, Ginger, who was looking great, and who whinnied with pleasure at seeing Jim. Peter took good care of him, and although Ginger was an old horse, he was still ridden regularly. Dapple was, as usual, placid and unconcerned with anything except his oats. He was Winona's donkey, and had come to them as one of the last gifts that Jim's dad had given his wife. He was cosseted and spoiled just as all the Kirk animals were, including the chickens.
Jonathon came into the barn. "There were a few eggs, Jim." He showed him the 4 eggs in his hands.
"Take them home, Jonathon. Enjoy farm fresh eggs tomorrow morning."
"Thanks, I will." Jonathon smiled his pleasure. Replicated eggs were not very good and fresh eggs were a treat.
Jim closed and locked the barn door while Jonathon commed his officer to let him know the chores had been taken care of and to let Mr. Thompson know. With that, the two men walked to the back field to their respective shuttles.
Jim's comm beeped. "Wait up, Jonathon. It's Gavin. Maybe he has some news. Kirk here."
"Jim!" Gavin's voice sounded triumphant. Sonnai and Uhura got us a name! The Andorian's name is Thoris. I'm checking all available data bases for him right now."
Jim's eyes gleamed as he looked over at Jonathon. "Great news, Gavin! I'll be right there. Kirk out!"
