Lost in thought, McCoy sat in the co-pilot's chair of the Trill ship, and tried to figure out how he'd gotten to be here. At one time, he'd been a doctor at a hospital in Atlanta, married, with one child.

Now, he was chasing Orions and Romulans, who had abducted his two best friends (a cunning, courageous and confident starship captain, and his smart-ass, half-Vulcan sidekick) across the infinite vastness of space. It sounded as if he'd become a character of some kind of superhero comic.

Beside him, Lieutenant Sulu was piloting their Batmobile. Surreal, was the word that he couldn't get out of his head. He wouldn't have been too surprised if he'd suddenly found out that he was wearing tights, a mask and a cape.

Their ship still made a lot of noise, and everything was vibrating. McCoy had fastened his seatbelt just after they had entered warp speed, but he had not really thought about their safety much, at least not until Sulu had also fastened his seatbelt, right after they had overcome some minor turbulences. Of course, Mr. Sulu was being his usual cheery self, and had only commented that they probably shouldn't go any faster than warp 5.8, "although I think she could go as fast as warp 7.9!"

"That's also what that Trill said," McCoy mumbled, "but you don't have to test it. The Orion ship is well within our sensor range. There's no need to break any speed records."

Sulu also took a look at the sensor readings. "I agree. They're going at warp ..." Sulu stopped, watching the readings in astonishment. The ship had just disappeared.

"What happened?" McCoy asked, feeling fear forming in his gut. Not fear for himself, but for Jim and Spock.

Sulu tapped the little monitor, maybe it was just a malfunction? This ship was not the Enterprise, but a ship Dr. McCoy had wheedled out of a dubious looking Trill merchant. It was possible that the sensors had just gone. But they were showing everything else, the system that the Orion ship had just been passing: the star, its 5 planets and their moons. But it didn't show the Orion ship anymore.

"Maybe they landed somewhere," Sulu said, and pressed some buttons to access the sensor log and replay the moment that the ship had disappeared.

"There was an explosion, wasn't there?" McCoy asked, worriedly. He had learned to read these sensors at the academy, but hadn't particularly paid attention to sensor readings after having passed the necessary test. And that had been more than a decade ago.

"Uh, yes," Sulu said, avoiding to look at the doctor. Come on, you're the pilot here, give him a more qualified answer, Sulu thought. He once more replayed the scene, then brightened a little. "There was an explosion, but it wasn't big enough to assume the whole ship has gone. They could probably bring her down on one of the planets or moons."

"You make it sound like it's good news," McCoy said accusingly, "what caused the explosion?"

"I don't know," Sulu admitted, then smiled at the doctor to cheer him up, "The good news is, that the whole ship didn't explode. It should be fairly easy to find them when we're there."

"What, with their signal gone? And they could have been seriously injured in that explosion even if it didn't blow their ship to little pieces." There are so many possibilities to die in space: lack of oxygen, decompression, cold, fire, ... Maybe there had been a fight, maybe Tamulok had shot them with a phaser, maybe they had been sucked out into space through a hole in the ship. Maybe there had been a plasma leak and they'd been consumed by green flames, maybe ...

"Doctor," Sulu interrupted McCoy's dark thoughts, "as I know the captain, they've found a way to overwhelm their abductors and land somewhere safely. Mr. Spock is probably working on their ship's engines right now. It wouldn't surprise me if they find us before we find them."

o0o

"Why did we crash?" Velal asked Tamulok, quietly, but not quietly enough for Kirk to not overhear.

"Well, I wasn't at the helm when we crashed, as you may recall," Tamulok said smugly, "the Orion slave girls were. Women pilots! Should have known that that wouldn't end well," he added mockingly.

They had found shelter in the shade of a rock formation about a kilometer away from their crashed ship. The sun had risen an hour ago and it was already unbearbly hot and humid. The air was soaked with water, one had the impression to be able to cut it, if one only had a knife. Moving was like swimming in a mass of jelly.

The ground here was muddy, but at least there weren't any of those thorny scrubs on the ground. Kirk's knee throbbed a bit from where the thorn had pricked him. He rubbed it unconsciously, thinking about their situation, and trying to figure out Tamulok. He'd killed and injured many innocent people on Starbase 3, and he'd sacrificed his own crew for his plans of a Romulan coup d'etat. It was possible that he not only had the means to take control over the Romulan senate, but also declare war on the Federation after that. The Romulans had avoided to do just that, because they were cautious, to the end of paranoid. Tamulok, however, was ruthless, and nobody knew what kind of weapons and technology he really had. He was obsessed with that legendary Romulan colony, maybe he'd really found something there. His own subordinate, that obscure Romulan spy, Velal, wanted him dead, but wasn't able, or willing, to kill him herself. But Kirk really hated Tamulok because he'd liked him once, even if he'd never really trusted him. And Kirk didn't like to be taken for a fool.

"Don't worry, Captain," Tamulok said in an arrogantly soothing way, "your people will come looking for you." His expression changed into a grimace of false pity. "Oh, no! The Enterprise is damaged! But have no fear, the brave crew will do everything to save their captain! They'll charter a small freighter, a coffin ship, a death-trap, a rust-bucket - only to get you back. Fearless and vailiant officers! Maybe Groundskeeper Willie, and your dear friend, Ole Sawbones himself. They'll pick up our signal, and because the atmosphere of this moon doesn't allow them to beam, they'll have to bring her down. When that happens, I'll be waiting. I'll take their ship, and lift off, waving down at you, saying Haw-Haw!"

Kirk almost smiled at Tamulok's eloquent use of quotations and references to earth's classics. I'll find out about your secret, don't worry! Almost, for he didn't like Tamulok's tone, at all.

"On Romulus the Praetor and the Proconsul will be grateful, for I eliminated the rebels. My influence will rise again, and then, I'll find a day to massacre them all, and raze their faction and their family." He stopped, smiling at Velal, then turning back to face Kirk again, "that's my favourite Shakespeare quote, by the way."

"You don't know my crew, Tamulok," Kirk said, "they're loyal, but no fools." Tamulok was playing with them, and he didn't like that.

Besides, no one was going to go after them in a shuttle. Starfleet Command would order Scotty to wait for back-up. Scotty would obey these orders. Of course, he wouldn't like it. Bones would have fit, but wouldn't be able to do anything. I'm a doctor, not a damn superhero, Kirk could hear him say.

"May I remind you, that we've agreed on burying our differences for the time being?" Velal asked wearily, "If we want to survive, we need water. I suggest we concentrate on finding some."

"Our chances of finding water will increase when we split up," Spock agreed, in part because it was the truth, in part because he wanted to confer with his captain alone.