Chapter 25

"Woah! She-is-beautiful! No wonder KirkJim loves her so much!"

Spock raised an eyebrow, then smiled, taking in the sight. He had brought the shuttle around the planet so that the Enterprise had come suddenly into view. Zahi had been off-world several times, so deep space was no novelty to her, but she had never seen anything close to a Starship.

And for Spock it was like a homecoming.

"But how will we get on board, SpockVulcan? Without alerting them."

"Code 2-10," Spock informed her. "It will give us security clearance and secrecy. And there will be only one person receiving us: the Captain himself."

He keyed in the program and codes and the Enterprise gave him the all-clear. Her shuttle bay gates opened and Spock steered their craft closer and in. He landed it on the pad next to another shuttle that he did not recognize.

"Someone else used 2-10," he warned Zahi.

The gates closed behind them. They rushed through the post-landing, decontamination and decompression procedures, but then Spock stopped Zahi from opening the hatch.

"I want the Captain to step inside first," he explained. "I want the doors to be closed behind him before we reveal ourselves, and even then we will have to overpower him."

They looked through the small porthole together. The bay doors opened and Zahi sucked in a breath.

Two men entered. Neither of them was Kirk.

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McCoy cursed as he followed Scotty to the shuttle bay. Though the Chief Engineer looked mighty nervous himself, McCoy was glad Scotty had been able to come. He was terrible at diplomacy. He could never remember the proper greeting for many of these races. It just wouldn't do to give a Medusan an Aaamazzarite salute! And who knew who would come out of that beat-up vehicle. It looked more like a smuggler's craft than something an Ambassador would want to travel in, even if he or she were touring incognito.

This is Jim's job, dammit!

Then that hatch opened and who leapt out but Spock, dressed in a dusty, black robe. And who else! He would have recognized her anytime.

"What the hell! I thought you were dead!" he yelled.

He looked over at Scott, who had also had the pleasure of meeting the Xylian witch that dark morning, three months ago. But Spock cut short any further observations about who was alive or dead.

"Where is the Captain?" the Vulcan barked.

"He-He told us to meet you-whoever it was," Scott sputtered. "This is highly unusual, Mister Spock, I—"

"Where!" Spock cut him off.

Spock wasn't waiting for the answer, which he seemed to know already. He ran to the console and smacked the button.

"Computer, locate Captain Kirk."

"Captain Kirk is in the First Officer's quarters," the impersonal voice announced.

Well, there's a surprise.

"Is he alone?"

"Captain Kirk is not alone."

What?

"Who is he with?"

"Unidentified," the computer intoned.

Spock spun around toward McCoy. The Doctor cringed under the cold, sharp scrutiny of those dark eyes.

"Who?" the Vulcan demanded hoarsely.

"Must be either that Kodelai General, Naren," McCoy submitted instantly, "or his First, Varek – a Vulcan, Spock!"

Then that Xylian woman let out a hair-raising scream and Spock launched himself through the shuttle bay door into the deserted corridor.

McCoy tried to keep up with him, but whatever it was that Spock knew and could not stop to share, gave him such urgency that the Doctor soon fell behind.

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"Open," Spock yelled, still meters away from his door. He hoped the voice commands had not been changed. He needed the element of surprise. If only he hadn't waited for the others to come into the bay, he would have gained an extra minute.

The door swished open and Spock rounded the corner and rushed headlong into his quarters.

And stopped.

"Come closer," the Vulcan warned him - a cold voice, but loud, with a thrill of nervousness – "and I'll kill him!"

The Captain was on his knees before the Vulcan, who stood towering over him. Slender fingers seemed suctioned onto his upturned face – on the temple, cheekbone, and jaw – while the strong right hand clutched the hair on the back of his head, holding him up and still.

Kirk was frozen, captive, but not unaware, not entirely under the Vulcan's spell. His face was contorted with alarm and confusion and - Spock thought - he seemed conscious of the sudden change in his aggressor and perhaps even of Spock's presence. The meld must have only just been initiated, and was now disturbed.

Spock knew immediately what to do.

"Jim, you have resisted him before! Remember-"

"Quiet!" the Vulcan yelled in a voice full of rage.

His right hand moved to the Captain's neck. Spock froze. He knew the Vulcan could snap the Captain's neck in a split second. And he knew that he would, and then they would never know what Kirk had done. And Spock knew that there was no way he could prevent it, that he had come too late.

But the meld, however superficial, was still in progress. And on the other end of it was James Kirk who, in the moment when Spock distracted his attacker, regained control, not over his paralyzed body but over his iron-willed mind.

The Vulcan screamed shrilly and released his captive and flung himself back the few feet to the wall in the cramped quarters.

Spock moved also. He stepped forward and lifted Kirk, light and limp as a puppet-on-a-string just cut loose, up and away from the Vulcan.

When he had turned back, the enemy was dead. The eyes were stone cold, the body slid down the wall and collapsed into a heap on the floor.

Giving him no more thought, Spock turned back to the Captain. Kirk too was on the floor, on his hands and knees, fighting for breath. McCoy, who had just run in, rushed to his friend's side.

"I don't have my medkit!" the Doctor yelled up at Spock.

But when Spock approached the comm unit, Kirk uttered a painful "No!"

Spock obeyed and turned back to see the Doctor help Kirk sit up on his ankles. The Captain was regaining control over his breathing, but the sight – which Spock's brain overlaid with the images from the torture chamber - was still painful to see.

"I'm fine, Bones," Kirk whispered. Then: "Spock! Spock, he did something to me." His eyes lit upon the dead Vulcan. Panic sprang into his eyes. "Spock! What did he do?"

Spock sank to his knees and held Kirk up by the upper arms and looked him in the eye.

"He abducted you on Xyla and placed a command in your mind. It is not too late-"

"-I don't remember, Spock! It's a gap, a void!"

Spock could feel the tremor run through his friend's body.

"Meld with me, Jim," he pleaded. "It is—"

"-No!"

Kirk, shivering now, struggled to escape Spock's grasp, but he was weak and uncoordinated, and Spock would not let go.

"Jim, listen! He planted your distrust of me in your mind. We must find out what his plan was, whether you have executed it!"

Kirk's head snapped up and his eyes opened wide. He stopped fighting Spock and took two tremulous breaths.

"You mean-You mean I could have put a bomb on the Enterprise?"

"That is a possibility, Captain."

Kirk drew another breath.

"Do it!" he ordered, cool as steel, in command, his teeth set against the quiver in his voice.

"Now wait a moment," McCoy yelled at Spock. "Just now when you mentioned a meld his heart rate nearly doubled and it's not come down and that's just on top of a raging fever and the beginning of the shakes. And you know where that ends up going, Spock!"

Spock looked at the Captain, who despite his self-command was rapidly sliding into a seizure. Spock was still holding him. The tremor in his body was now visible, and even the pupils of his eyes, though Kirk tried desperately to anchor them to Spock, were rolling.

There was no time to spare. He would have to go in deep and quick.

He pulled Kirk down and helped him lay down on his side on the floor. McCoy, out of options, held him, one hand on his shoulder, the other on his hip. Spock swallowed. His fingertips touched down on Kirk's burning face.