Chapter 14

Doctor McCoy was seated across his desk from Dar Thavalan, growing more worried and more upset as she related what happened in the Captain's quarters. When she finished, he spoke a bit sadly, and said, "I don't understand why Captain Kirk called you and not me."

"You will, if you think about it" Dar said. "In the first place, the Captain is a very private man, and you have been his friend for a long time. There are some things that are just easier to talk to strangers or acquaintances about than to friends. In the second, he asked me to keep it out of his record. Perhaps, he did not wish to put you in that position. He knows my rank will make it easier for me to weather whatever storm comes from my decision to grant his request. In addition to all of that, he may not be thinking as clearly as is normal for Captain Kirk. After all, he has just suffered an assault, the details of which we don't know, and he is still emotionally compromised."

"Don't let him hear you say that."
"He said it to me."

"HE did? Maybe this is worse than I thought."

"What do you mean?"

"Under normal circumstances, you'll never hear Jim say that to anyone."

"Will you help me help him, then?"

McCoy sighed. "Of course I will."

(0o0)

Dee rang the bell outside the Captain's door, and when he didn't answer, she punched in the medical override. Jim Kirk was lying on his bunk, staring at the ceiling of his quarters. He stayed that way for a moment, and then his eyes found hers. She frowned as she looked at his readings on her tricorder.

"How long has it been since you have eaten, Jim?"

"I am not hungry."

"That didn't answer my question."

Kirk shrugged, and didn't answer, as though he had no concept of time. Moving to his desk, she called sickbay. When McCoy answered, she said, "Mac, please meet me in the Captain's quarters, and be prepared to place a feeding tube."

"Yes, ma'am."

Jim Kirk stared at her. "I don't need a feeding tube."

"At this point, you have two options, Captain. You can accompany Mac and me to the galley and eat, or we can feed you with a feeding tube. If you don't eat one way or the other soon, you are going to be in serious trouble. I want you to eat, and then I want to bring you back here, and hypnotize you. It is time to find out as much as we can about what happened, and determine what we can do about it."

To Dee's surprise, Captain Kirk shrank into himself a bit, and looked at her with a deer in the headlights expression. "Is there a problem, Captain?"

Before he could answer, the doors to his cabin slid aside, and Doctor McCoy strode inside. Seeing Bones, Kirk shook his head, and didn't answer. Dee turned to McCoy and said, "The Captain has agreed to join us for a meal in the ship's galley. Come, gentlemen. We have much work to do."

The galley was deserted when they arrived. Dee moved to the replicators and inserted the Captain's meal card. She came back a few moments later with a rather large Altairian steak and placed it in front of the Captain. She ordered herself some fine Andorian salmon, and McCoy ate a rather large salad, with soup and baked potato. Kirk cut his steak up, and ate about half of it, for no other reason than to delay the return to his quarters. It had no taste to him, and he took no joy in it. Kirk was a man who appreciated good food, and this steak, even replicated, was one of the finest the Federation had to offer. That he did not finish it, nor seem to enjoy it, told both doctors as much as they needed to know about Jim's condition.

When he was finished, Dee took his arm, and accompanied him back down the corridor to his quarters. Dee seated herself in Kirk's desk chair, and motioned Kirk to a seat across from her, on his bunk. McCoy seated himself beside his Captain.

"Well, Captain," she said, at length, "I am going to ask Doctor McCoy to do a complete physical exam on you, as well as some basic psychological tests you have had before. They will measure your Psi rating, among other things. Mainly, we want to see if anything has changed. After that, the things I would like to do are negotiable, but we must know what has happened to you in order to help you, and I suspect something is blocking that information in your mind. As I see it, we have three main options for diagnosis and treatment—hypnosis, Spock, or truth drug. Ordinarily, I would ask Spock to touch your mind, but since he is ill, I think hypnosis is where we should start.

Jim Kirk had a visceral reaction to the mention of Spock's name. Dee noticed, as did Leonard McCoy.

"My goodness. Spock is a very good friend of yours. What is it that could possibly cause a reaction like that to my mention of his name?"

"I don't know. I have felt something since I woke up, every time his name is mentioned. It is a feeling deep inside, as though things are about to go horribly wrong."

"Wrong how?" Bones asked.

"I wish I could answer that, Bones."

(0o0)

Ensign Brian Ruggiero paced the inside of his quarters aboard ship, watching his wife sleep. He was glad that she had been released from sickbay, and those thoughts brought him to Spock. He wished he could step down to sickbay to check on the Vulcan's condition, but while they hadn't specifically told him he was confined to quarters or posted guards at his door, somehow, they had made it clear that he was to stay put until their investigation on the Outpost was complete, in case he was needed.

"What are you thinking about, hon?"

"Anna! How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been on a three day binge. How's the baby?"

"Doctor McCoy told me he thought they were able to save the child. They've done all they can. We will just have to wait and see now."

"I hope everything is all right."

"It will be, you'll see."

At that moment, the door chime sounded, and Brian pushed the release. When the doors opened, two burly security guards stepped inside.

"Ensign Ruggiero, come with us, please."

"Where are we going?"

"The Captain needs more information about the ship you saw." The two security officers moved up on either side of the young ensign, effectively guiding him out the door and through the corridors of the great ship. Ensign Ruggiero expected to be meeting the Captain on the bridge, or in a briefing room, and so was rather surprised when they led him to the lower decks. They stopped in front of a very ordinary looking door and sounded the chime. A moment later, the door opened. A young man was seated at the desk, sifting through a stack of data tapes. He looked up when they came in, and Ruggiero failed to hide his surprise. This was not the Captain. This man had the rank of Lieutenant on his sleeve. He motioned Ruggiero to a chair, and signaled the security officers that they could leave.

"Ensign Ruggiero, I am Lieutenant Pavel Chekov, Assistant Security Chief. You were working with Mister Spock to identify the origins of the ship you saw on Outpost 3. As you may know, the ship automatically records everything that takes place in business rooms aboard ship, unless we specifically instruct the computer not to do so. That is to say, nothing is recorded in the living areas, such as recreation decks, living quarters, and galleys. Of course, just as we can instruct the computer not to record goings on in work areas, we can also instruct the computer to record goings on in living areas. We generally do this when someone wants a record of a special event, such as an awards ceremony, a wedding, or a funeral. Now, you identified the last ship Mister Spock showed you. Are you sure it was that ship which you saw?"

"Yes."

"All right. What was the origin of that ship?"

"According to the computer, the ship's origin was unknown to the Federation."

"Do you remember anything else about the ship?"

"No. Well, maybe, but I am not sure it has any significance. Someone in passing mentioned that they recognized the ship as one which housed a delegation of some kind from the Babel mission. I don't even know what that is, but I remember wondering about it when I heard it."

"Thank you. Do you remember who said that?"

"No I don't. My best guess is one of the medical staff, but I am not sure."

"Thank you for your help. If I need anything further from you, I will contact you. Unless and until that happens, you are free to move about the ship at will, so long as you observe posted restrictions."

"Thank you, sir."

(0o0)

Jim Kirk was contemplating sneaking out of sickbay…again. He was tired of all the tests. McCoy must have read his thoughts because he said, "Don't even think about it, Jim. Commodore Thavalan would throw you in the brig so fast you would think she beamed you there, and me along with you. We only have a couple of tests left to fulfill her initial orders, and then you can go back to your quarters, and rest there until we have the test results."

"I don't want to rest. I am tired of resting. I want to walk my ship, talk to my crew. They need their Captain's reassurances that everything will be back to normal soon."

"Turn over on your stomach," McCoy instructed him. Jim did as he was told, and then there was a bright flash of light, a flash of heat, and a short, intense burning sensation right at the level of his kidneys. He felt a hiss and a tingling as McCoy injected him with something. Whatever it was, it worked. The burning sensation stopped.

"I am sorry, Captain. As much as I agree that a walk would do you good, Dee wants to wait until after you have finished the psychiatric testing she wants to do before she allows you to talk to anyone outside of sickbay. That shouldn't be long. I am under strict orders to call her when we finish here, and she will come and escort you where you need to be for her testing. Now then, the last test the Commodore ordered for you is a lab test."

With those words, he caught Jim's arm in a fierce grasp, and pushed the sleeve past his elbow. Jim Kirk, once and future Captain of the starship Enterprise, watched with all the fascination of a young boy, as his lifeblood flowed into the vials that McCoy attached and replaced on the hypo.

(O0O)

Dee Thavalan had set up a makeshift office in an unused VIP suite adjoining her quarters. Jim Kirk was seated in a very comfortable reclining chair, horrified at what was about to take place, though his command presence would not allow him to show it. Dee knew what he was thinking.

"Jim, I suppose asking you to relax won't work. Would it help to remind you that you are among friends?"

"I know that, and I appreciate it. Still, I hate this."

"How can I make this better for you?"

"Hmmm. I suppose allowing me to go back to work and forgetting this ever happened is out of the question, isn't it?"

"You already know the answer to that question, Jim."

"Well then, the only way to make it better for me is to just go ahead and do it. Get it over with, so I can walk my ship again and talk to my crew."

"All right. That's what we will do, then. That chair has a secret, Captain. Two actually. The first secret is that it is voice controlled, and the second is that it is intuitive to what the person seated needs. It was developed by the Argelians, if that tells you anything, and it is a prototype. I happen to possess the only one currently in existence, under the auspices of testing it for them. Recline, level three."

Gradually, Jim found himself in a full reclining position, although he never felt the chair move. The longer he sat in the chair, the more comfortable it became. He shook his head. Dar Thavalan had all the gadgets and gizmos.

"A real life, female James Bond," he said, under his breath.

"What was that, Jim?"

"I was just thinking about the fact that you always have all the cool toys."

"Are you surprised, Captain?"

"Surprised? No. Somehow it fits your personality."

"Close your eyes and try to get comfortable, Jim. Picture the person who means the most to you in your mind. Focus on the details of their face—hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, color. See it all clearly in your mind, and hold onto the image. I am going to count backwards from ten to one, and when I reach one, you will be totally relaxed. You will remember everything that happens here tonight. Ten…nine…eight…seven….six…five…four…three…two…one. You are totally relaxed."

With that, Jim Kirk opened his eyes and said, "I'm sorry, Dee. This just isn't working."

"I wondered if that might happen. That's one reason I insisted on keeping McCoy informed. If you cannot talk to me, you may talk to him instead. The only other option is truth drug. I don't want to do that unless we have no other choice. You will not remember it, and it will be traumatic for both of us."

With those words, she toggled a switch on her desk, and spoke into the air when McCoy answered.

"Doctor, please meet me in the Captain's quarters."

"Yes, ma'am. On my way."

Mac reached Jim's quarters in time to hear the Commodore say, "I think a walk around the ship might do you some good, but I would like to limit your interactions with the crew until we finish our testing."

"I agree that we should do that. I just want to stretch my legs and reassure the crew. Maybe check on Spock."

"All right, Jim. We will accompany you."

The three senior officers set off on a walk around the ship. Kirk was happy to see the friendly faces in familiar corridors, and the hour he spent on the walk served to reassure him that all was well, just as it did his crew. When they finally reached the bridge, the first shift bridge crew was getting ready to go off duty for the day, and all of them were eager to show their support for their Captain and friend.

"Look Captain," Uhura said, quietly. "We've managed to capture some subspace chatter from the five day period in which Lieutenant Johnson was left on the Outpost. I've been working on the language, and I think I can translate some of it. That should give us a place to start on identifying these people."

"Good job, Miss Uhura. Care to tell me what that says?" He gestured to the screen, upon which were written words in a foreign language.

"It is a fragment of a conversation between the speaker and another, as yet unidentified person. Let me see. It says something about the new moon. It rises over the village." The last bit of what Uhura said was drowned out by what was happening in the Captain's brain. As she said the words 'new' and 'moon' and 'rises', those words burned themselves into Jim's brain, and it felt as though something exploded there. A swirling vortex of thoughts and colors and voices hit him like a ton of bricks, and though he showed nothing outwardly, Dee Thavalan felt him sag for a moment against her, and she knew something was wrong. Quietly, she said, "The Captain must rest. We will return to sickbay. All of you may visit later, after we determine what is wrong and how to handle it."

With that, she took a firm grip on the Captain's arm, knowing that he needed to walk out of there for the sake of the crew, and also knowing that he wouldn't completely be doing so under his own power.

She got him back to sickbay, and placed him in a private room, under guard until they could figure out what was happening.