Kirk

Jim sat in his chair, hands steepled below his chin. He didn't know what awaited him above New Vulcan, and he didn't like that.

'Arriving at New Vulcan in 10 seconds Captain.' Chekov informed him.

Jim nodded and watched the viewscreen. The lines of stars stilled and took on stationary positions. 'Is the Vulcan ship here Ensign?' Kirk asked.

'Affirmative Captain.' came the response. 'It is holding a standard orbit. Scanners indicate it has its shields up.'

They wouldn't be able to beam over with the shields up.

'Captain, we are being hailed by Vulcan High Command.' called Gaila from the communications console.

'On screen.' Jim instructed her.

A dark-haired Vulcan woman appeared on screen. Jim flashed her the Vulcan salute, managing to get his fingers to behave for a change. Before he could offer greetings she spoke.

'Captain Kirk. I am Sub-Commander T'Rel. Administrator Sarek is currently in negotiations with the Captain of the Ship holding Commander Spock. Please maintain standard orbit.'

The transmission cut. Jim rolled his eyes. Vulcans.

'Captain?' Gaila asked.

'Yes Ensign?'

'You have a priority 1 communication from Starfleet Command Sir.' she informed him.

Jim clenched his teeth. Great. 'I'll take it in my ready room.'

Jim took a moment to compose himself before he switched on the console at his desk and accepted the incoming transmission.

It was Admiral Komack. He'd been hoping for Pike. He managed not to sigh. Just.

'Admiral.' he greeted. 'To what do I owe the pleasure?'

The Admiral frowned. 'You've diverted from your logged mission route. You're 70 lightyears off course Captain. An explanation is in order.'

'Certainly sir.' Jim replied. 'One of my crew was… kidnapped sir. We are in pursuit.'

Komack raised an eyebrow. 'Kidnapped by whom?'

'As yet unidentified Vulcans sir.'

The Admiral frowned. 'Kirk, the situation with Vulcan Command is delicate. I don't want you standing on anybody's toes.'

'Of course not sir. We are co-operating in full with Vulcan High Command.' Jim reassured him.

Komack didn't look entirely convinced. 'Well good. Offer assistance, but don't interfere. The last think we need is a diplomatic incident.'

'I'm not going to sit back and leave a member of my crew a prisoner.' Jim replied making an effort to keep his voice even. 'Sir.'

Komack raised an eyebrow, his voice loosing what little warmth it had. 'The Vulcan authorities can handle it Captain. I assure you they are quite capable.'

Jim nodded in agreement, but couldn't help but disagree. 'With all due respect, they aren't as capable as the Enterprise.'

'Captain.' Komack replied sharply. 'I told you, I don't want an incident. We don't want to give the extremist element on New Vulcan any more holo coverage. After the incident with the red matter High Command is touchy as hell.'

Jim frowned. 'The crew member is Commander Spock sir. Administrator Sarek seemed to appreciate our presence. I don't think there's any risk of an 'incident'.'

'Commander Spock?' Komack inquired.

'Yes sir.' Jim was hopeful the Admiral would relax a little, give Jim a bit more leeway knowing it was Spock who was taken.

Komack was silent for a long moment. 'That makes the situation more complicated rather than less. Be careful Kirk. If this blows up in your face it's your command on the line.' he said.

Jim held in a frown. Starfleeet Command was always so damn eager to blame him for everything. 'Understood Sir.'

'Keep me informed. Komack out.'

Jim stared at the screen for a moment before activating the ship's intercom. 'Engineering. Scotty?'

There was a brief pause. 'Aye Captain?'

'Get up to the bridge, I need your expertise.'

'On my way Captain.'

Jim returned to the bridge. He looked to Gaila and raised an eyebrow questioningly. 'No word from Vulcan Command Captain.' she replied to his unspoken query.

He nodded and glanced over his bridge looking for inspiration.

'Chekov. What can you tell me?' he asked vaguely. Maybe his Russian whizz kid would offer some insight.

'Very little Captain.' he replied apologetically. 'We cannot lock onto the Commander's communicator signal, most likely the unit has been destroyed. Sensor scans of the ship are incomplete due to their shields.'

Jim frowned in thought. They needed to get onto that ship.

The turbolift cycled open and Scotty wandered onto the bridge.

'Scotty! Time for you to prove your genius yet again.' Jim proclaimed.

The engineer shot Jim a sceptical look. 'Oh aye captain?' he asked warily.

'Yep. You're going to get a transporter beam through a tactical disruptor shield.'

'Oh. I am, am I?' Scotty inquired mildly. 'That's quite ambitious of me.'

'A walk in the park for you Scotty.' Jim reassured him with a shoulder slap.

'Theoretically, it is possible.' Scotty replied slipping into 'lecture' mode. 'It's a matter of adjusting for the effect of the resonance of the shields upon the molecular frequency of the beam.'

Jim blinked. 'Good. Get to it.'

Scotty frowned. 'What, right now Captain?'

'Five minutes ago would be perfect.' Jim replied.

'Well, I'll try…' the engineer replied. 'Can I at least borrow Chekov?'

'Be my guest.' Jim motioned to the Ensign. 'Go help Scotty break a few more laws of physics Chekov.'

He grinned in excitement and shot to his feet. 'Very good Captain!'

The turbolift cycled again.

Uhura stepped onto the bridge. She was wearing Vulcan clothes with her hair loose. It was longer than he'd thought. Jim rarely saw her out of her uniform and hadn't seen her hair down since that first night he'd met her at the shipyard. She looked like a different person. 'Captain.' she greeted him tersely.

'Lieutenant. Good to see you out of medbay.'

'Thank you sir. I have information on the Vulcan ship.' Uhura could be just as blunt as her boyfr-husband.

'I'm all ears Lieutenant.'

'I believe the main perpetrators are a Vulcan elder named T'Prak, and her granddaughter T'Pring.' Uhura replied.

Jim frowned. 'An elder kidnapped Spock? Why?'

'It's complicated. But it's a personal… vendetta. Not a politically motivated one.' she clarified hesitantly.

Clearly she wasn't telling him the whole story, but it was something of a relief. A personal vendetta meant no 'Diplomatic Incident'. Which meant no court martial for James T. Kirk. 'So why have they taken Spock?' he asked.

Uhura frowned slightly. 'I don't have all the details, but I have a theory, one that Administrator Sarek agrees with.'

'You've spoken to the Administrator?' Jim asked in surprise.

'Yes sir. To confirm my suspicions.' she explained.

'You've got a direct line to Sarek of Vulcan?' he inquired in interest. Uhura blinked. Glanced around the bridge. The crew were all silent, focused intently on their work and obviously eavesdropping.

'Not exactly sir.' she replied vaguely.

Jim let the subject drop. 'And this theory?'

'T'Pring is Spock's ex-fiancée.' she replied remarkably calmly considering.

'His ex?' Jim asked in confusion. An angry jilted ex? That didn't sound very Vulcan.

'Yes. She's… quite disturbed. She lost her husband with Vulcan. She seems to have confused him with Spock.'

She sounded almost concerned. Pitying. Uhura had a bigger heart than him. If he'd been in her position he'd be pissed at this T'Prong woman, crazy or not. 'So what are they going to do with Spock?' he asked.

'I think T'Prak will try and bond him to T'Pring. She probably hopes it will help her granddaughter regain some sense.' Uhura replied thoughtfully.

'What? You mean marry him to his ex?' Jim asked.

Uhura frowned. 'It wouldn't be marriage, not without his consent.'

'Well, Spock's never gonna give them that.' Jim reassured her. 'And Administrator Sarek is talking to the Captain of the ship as we speak, he might be able to get him to hand over T'Prak and T'Pring without us needing to intervene.'

Uhura swallowed. 'Sir, can I speak to you privately for a moment?'

'Of course.' Jim wondered what she else she had to say. She'd just divulged some pretty personal information in the middle of the bridge, whatever else there was had to be pretty bizarre.

'Could we get Dr McCoy?' she asked almost nervously.

Jim frowned. 'Nothing wrong is there Lieutenant?'

'No no, he'll just be able to help explain some things.' she replied.

Jim nodded and palmed the ship's intercom. 'Medbay. This is the Captain speaking. McCoy to the bridge.'

Five minutes later he and Bones were watching Uhura pace in his ready room. The pretty dress and the matching robe she wore fluttered about her as she turned. It was a very dark blue colour. Jim could just make out weird Vulcan symbols along the lapels of the robe. She looked very exotic and very beautiful. Like an Arabian princess from 1001 Nights or something.

On Jim's computer console another beautiful woman in Vulcan robes was talking. The translator program was causing a slight delay, but it seemed to be translating quite accurately. Spock's ex really was nuts. Uhura had played the first few, weird but sane messages, (for a Vulcan at least), and Spock's response before playing half a dozen random messages from the months that followed. The message they were currently watching was one in which the admittedly gorgeous T'Prang had begged almost like a jilted human woman, (something Jim was quite familiar with), for Spock to come to her, ended.

'And Spock hadn't even listened to them?' Jim asked into the silence.

'No. Only her first two messages. He would have found the entire thing very uncomfortable. The polite thing on Vulcan when you encounter someone who is mentally ill or has their 'logic impeded' for whatever reason is to ignore them.' she replied.

'Poor woman.' Bones remarked. 'Clearly suffering from acute post-traumatic stress disorder.' He huffed. 'And with how Vulcan's are mentally bonded to their spouses, well, it's not all that surprising.'

'She kidnapped Spock.' Jim reminded him.

'No, sounds like this T'Prak organised that. This poor woman couldn't have. She's delusional. In that last message I think she was hallucinating. She was calling Spock 'Stonn', she didn't even know who she was talking to. It's criminal that she'd not receiving proper care.'

'I agree. I wonder how many Vulcans are in her position?' Uhura said thoughtfully. 'Traumatised and being ignored rather than treated.'

Jim glanced at her in surprise.

'However that's not what I wanted to talk to you about.' She turned to Jim. 'You're going to beam over there and look for Spock aren't you Jim?'

She so rarely, correction, never called him by his first name. Alarm bells went off in Jim's brain. She was trying to put him in a good mood. He had a feeling he knew where this was going. 'No. Not happening.' he informed her before she had the chance to ask.

'You'll need me.' she said.

'No way Lieutenant, you're lucky I even let you leave medbay.' he replied.

She sniffed. 'T'Prak severed our marriage bond so she could force Spock to bond with T'Pring.'

'You're probably right, but Spock's not going to agree it.' Jim said.

'There's one way he probably would Captain.' she glanced at McCoy. 'You can't repeat what I'm about to tell you.' She paused, actually lowered her voice as if someone might overhear. 'Vulcans don't talk about it. Ever. Okay?'

Jim exchanged a curious look with Bones. 'Okay fine. What is it?' he asked.

'McCoy?' she insisted.

Bones frowned. 'Hey! I didn't tell Jim here your name back at the Academy, and I didn't tell him you were married either.' He lifted his head high. 'I'm a doctor. I can keep a confidence.'

'Good.' she replied then paused and frowned. 'This is going to sound weird, but just bear with me. ' She took a deep breath. 'Vulcans... go into heat.'

Jim blinked. What?

'Every seven years.' Uhura continued. 'If they don't mate they die within about a week. It has such a drastic effect on their hormone levels that they more or less go crazy. It makes them very violent. They can't even speak in the final stages, or even think properly.' She glanced at Bones. 'You remember when you treated me back at the Academy Doctor?'

Bones frowned. 'That's what that was?'

Uhura nodded. 'More or less.'

Bones looked disturbed. He shot a glance at Jim. 'I think she's telling it like it is Jim.'

Jim frowned. 'Wait, what happened at the Academy?' What was going on? Vulcans went into heat?

Bones waved a hand. 'Nothing Jim. Let's stick to the issue at hand.'

'If T'Prak can induce that state in Spock,' Uhura continued thoughtfully, '- he won't be Spock. He probably will let her bond him to T'Pring.'

Jim blinked. He was having difficulty processing all the crazy stuff Uhura was spouting. 'Vulcan's 'go into heat'?' he asked belatedly.

Uhura nodded. 'Yes. They call it 'pon'farr' or simply their 'time'. It was a cycle shared by most life on Old Vulcan. It had something to do with solar flares or something.' she waved a hand dismissively. 'My point however, is that T'Prak wouldn't risk kidnapping Sarek of Vulcan's son unless she was certain she'd get what she wanted. This seems the most likely way for her to do that. If she can induce pon'farr in Spock, she can offer a logical explanation for her actions. Say she bonded him to T'Pring so he wouldn't die. Say he was behaving violently or irrationally and demanded it. Otherwise what she's done… To do anything to another Vulcan's mind, their bonds without permission, those are the greatest crimes a Vulcan can commit.'

'But, how could she make Spock… go into… heat?' McCoy asked awkwardly.

'There are triggers, things that can bring it on early or out of cycle.' She shot a pointed look at Bones. 'That's what happened last year. Since Vulcan weddings take place when the male is under the influence of pon'farr, and the ceremonies are performed by elders, it would make sense that elders would be familiar with all those triggers.'

'Okay, so Spock might be acting crazy when we find him. That's more of a reason not to bring you Uhura.' Jim pointed out.

She shook her head. 'No. I'm Spock's bondmate. If given a choice between me and T'Pring, he's going to want me. If he's in that state, I'm your only chance at controlling him. He'll be violent. You won't be able to reason with him.'

'But with your bond broken and with Spock crazy, will he remember that you're his 'mate' as you put it?' Jim asked.

Uhura looked awkward for a moment. 'He'll know straight away that I'm his.' She said. 'Even if he's mad with the blood fever, he'll be able to, um.' She coughed and looked at her fingernails awkwardly. '… smell himself on me.'

Bones raised a sceptical eyebrow.

Uhura pressed a hand to her forehead. Her cheeks had darkened with a blush. 'When this is all over you cannot talk to Spock about any of this stuff, he'd be mortified.' she continued. 'But, Vulcan's have a really highly developed sense of smell. In plak'tow Spock will be extra sensitive, even if he is totally out of it and doesn't recognise me, I'm 99% sure he'll be able to tell I'm pregnant and that it's his.'

'Plack toe?' Bones asked in his 'studious' tone of voice.

'The blood fever, the final stage of pon'farr.'

'Look Uhura, even if you're right, we'll just stun Spock and bring him back here. Then we can do whatever needs to be done without you risking yourself. If something were to happen to you, Spock would never forgive himself.' Jim said.

'And if something happens to you, if Spock hurts or kills one of the crew, he'll never forgive himself. And besides, whatever happens to Spock might as well be happening to me.' She raised a hand to silence the rebuttal on the tip of his tongue. 'And no, I'm not just saying that. The only reason I'm not raving down in sickbay like T'Pring is because I'm pregnant and the child has a connection to Spock. If I wasn't pregnant, or if that connection was severed because Spock died, I'd fall back into tel-has-mar. A few days and I'd be insane. So I have to come because whatever gives you the best chance of keeping Spock alive automatically gives me the best chance as well.'

'Uhura.' Jim began. 'You're pregnant. Your husband's insane ex has kidnapped him. And she's not just insane she telepathic and three times as strong as you. I am not bringing you.' Nothing she could say on the matter would convince him. He knew Spock wouldn't want her risking herself.

She glared at him for a long moment before she abruptly turned on her heel and stormed out of the room, robes billowing behind her.

Bones watched her go. 'Something tells me she'll be back Jim.'