As soon as he materialized back on board the Enterprise, Spock ordered that the senior officers meet in a half an hour to be briefed on what had transpired on planet Idaus. He also ordered Lt. Uhura to send a priority one message to Starfleet Command detailing the events, and asking for orders.

After attending to these matters, Spock headed to sickbay. McCoy needed to be told what was going on with Jim immediately, and Spock knew the doctor would be furious. The landing party had learned a great deal from their interaction with Pyloc, but Spock wondered whether it would actually help Jim. A large part of the mystery had been solved, but the problem still remained. Spock had no idea how to help the Captain, and he could only hope that McCoy would be able to use the information he was about to provide.

To say that he entered sickbay with trepidation would have been assigning too much emotion to Spock's current state of mind. Even so, he felt as close to uneasy as it was possible for him feel. Dr. McCoy was at times given to irrational outbursts of emotion where his patients were concerned, and his reactions were often illogical. Given that this patient was also McCoy's best friend, and that the mysterious illness from which his friend suffered was perpetrated by a humanoid for nefarious purposes… well, a logical mind like Spock's could hardly predict how the doctor would react.

Spock found Dr. McCoy sitting at his desk with his head in his hands. "Dr. McCoy," Spock said softly. "How is the Captain?"

McCoy didn't look up. "He's dying, Spock. He's dying right in front of me, and I can't do a damned thing about it."

Spock did not speak, so after a moment's hesitation, the doctor continued, this time with an edge to his voice. "I suppose that's not specific enough information for you? Well, his pancreas is failing, and so are his kidneys. At this point he's diabetic on top of the cancer and sepsis. These are all medical conditions that I should be able to cure in a day or two, but nothing I do makes it any better." McCoy angrily pushed his chair back, and stood so that he could see into the room where Kirk lay. "And if that wasn't bad enough, I can't even keep him comfortable. He's in too much pain. None of his conditions should be causing such intense pain, but there it is." McCoy turned to face Spock, and stared intently at him for a moment, as if wanting to see if anything he was saying had stirred an emotional reaction. "He wakes up at least once an hour. He's begged me to make the pain stop…" McCoy stopped and looked away from the impassive Vulcan. He cleared his throat, and when he looked at Spock again, his face almost mirrored Spock's emotionless expression. "I'm sure that's more information than you wanted, Commander Spock."

"To the contrary, Doctor. I asked about the Captain's condition, and you have given a very thorough report." For a moment, Dr. McCoy looked angry enough to hit Spock, until the Vulcan added softly, "I know the Captain… Jim… is more than just your commanding officer. I know that the two of you are friends, and that this must be very difficult for you." Spock paused before continuing, "I have almost begun to consider him a friend myself."

The expression on McCoy's face changed suddenly from anger to intense weariness. "I think he was..is… beginning to think of you as a friend, also," he replied. He turned to leave his office to go check on Jim, but Spock stopped him.

"I have information that may help you save Jim."

To say that McCoy was on an emotional roller coaster was putting it very mildly. When Spock had told him what the bastard Pyewacket, or whatever the hell his name was had done to Jim, McCoy had been absolutely livid. White hot raging fury sounded tame compared to the emotion he had felt. Once the information had registered in his brain, and he realized what it meant, the rage had subsided slightly, replaced by a burgeoning hope that he might be able to use what Spock had learned to save Jim.

The hope was now fading quickly, as the doctor found himself back at square one. He now knew what Jim wasn't suffering from- pancreatic cancer, but he had no idea what kind of poison had been used or what the antidote might be. As the hope faded the rage was returning, and McCoy was all for beaming a security team down to the planet, capturing the son of a bitch and forcing him to tell them how to save Jim.

The mystery was now partially solved. Jim was nothing more than a pawn in a violent political chess game taking place on a world Bones had never even heard of until a few days ago.

Bones' reverie was interrupted by the intercom. "Dr. McCoy!" Uhura's velvet voice was full of excitement. "I have a communication from Dr. Haney!"

Several minutes later, McCoy was sitting at his desk. He anxiously clicked open the file on his computer console. The medical chart of one Savender Patel was included in the file, along with a short message of explanation from Haney.

"Dr. McCoy, I hope this information finds you in time to be of some assistance. I was ordered by a high-ranking general to destroy this file four years ago after Ms. Patel passed away. This is why you were unable to find it in the database. I illegally kept a copy on my personal computer just in case a similar medical situation popped up, and for your captain's sake, I'm glad I did. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do."

McCoy opened up the chart and forced himself to read it slowly and carefully. The story of the unfortunate Ms. Patel slowly came together as he read her medical history. She had just come back from a diplomatic mission to a planet that had never before been visited by humans. Because of this, she had undergone a complete physical. This was protocol in such situations. She received a clean bill of health and went on her way. Two days later, she was back, complaining of severe chest pains. This part was what McCoy had vaguely remembered. She underwent a second physical, and this time it revealed that she had the symptoms of lung cancer, but with no detectable spots or masses. She also was septic.

The rest of the chart consisted of a detailed record of the multitude of tests and procedures that the medical staff put Ms. Patel through in a futile attempt to save her life. After she died, an autopsy had been done to try and determine the cause of death. The findings were startling. A foreign object that was described in the report as "a metallic ball of unknown origin, 4 mm in diameter" had been found lodged behind her left lung. It was undetectable by traditional diagnostic methods, and the tricorder had failed to pick up the small metallic object even when it was sitting on a surgical tray.

The coroner had never seen anything like it, but upon consulting with Dr. Haney came to the conclusion that the foreign object must have been toxic and was responsible for Ms. Patel's symptoms and untimely death. This conclusion was the only logical one they could come to, considering that the autopsy confirmed that there were no tumors on her lungs and no bacteria in her blood.

McCoy read the report with a growing sense of excitement. His medical intuition told him that the file Haney had sent him was indeed the key to saving Jim. If there had been any doubt in his mind, it was erased when McCoy 's eyes picked up a note that had been entered in small font in the memo section. Such notes were usually meant as communication between medical staff on different shifts. "Patient was most recently on Idaus. Reporter will be allowed to interview her about her experiences there at her request when he arrives at 1100 hours." It was an interview appointment that Ms. Patel was destined to break. She had died 6 hours after the note was added.

McCoy's throat went dry. Ms. Patel had been on Idaus before she died. She was about to go to the media about something she had seen there and someone had killed her to shut her up. He knew he was hardly a detective, and his circumstantial evidence would never stand up in a court of law, but the doctor's intuition was telling him he was right. This was too eerily similar to Jim's case to be a coincidence.

As soon as Leonard was done reading the report he began formulating a game plan. Ms. Patel's symptoms had been indicative of lung cancer, and the foreign substance had been found next to her lung. It wasn't a monumental leap to suspect that Jim's pancreatic cancer symptoms were being caused by an identical foreign substance lodged near his pancreas. McCoy would have to operate immediately if he was going to save Jim's life.

The doctor knew that he needed to brief Spock on Jim's condition, but he was unwilling to waste any time on a formal debriefing. He called the Vulcan down to sick bay and continued to prepare for surgery as he waited for the first officer's appearance. It only took Spock a few minutes to arrive, but by that time McCoy was almost ready to begin. He had his staff assembled and had already filled them in on the upcoming procedure. They were currently in the process of gathering the necessary instruments and medical supplies when Spock walked into McCoy's office.

Even though the surgery had not even begun, and the captain's life was still in the balance, Spock felt as if the man in front of him was completely different from the weary, despondent doctor he had spoken to a few hours earlier. McCoy clearly had hope now, and a clear plan of action, and he was once again the confident chief medical officer of the Enterprise.

McCoy quickly updated Spock on Patel's medical file and his subsequent plan of action. When he got to the part about Idaus being Patel's last assignment before she died, Spock's right eyebrow disappeared into his hairline. "It is illogical to draw conclusions without having all the facts," he began, "however, it is difficult to believe that this could be a coincidence. Ms. Patel must have had information about Idaus that someone wanted to keep a secret."

McCoy nodded brusquely. "That's exactly what I was thinking, Spock. And believe me, at some point in the future I would like to know what the big secret was. But to be honest, all I care about right now is saving Jim's life."

Spock nodded. "Of course, that is our top priority. " The first officer started toward the door of McCoy's office and then paused and looked over his shoulder. "I know that the Captain could not be in better hands."