"Damn it Riley, I'm trying to sleep." Eric Hansen wedged a pair of pillows against his ears to escape the incessant pounding invading his dreams.
"Riley!"
"It's not me Hanson, it's the door."
Grumbling Hanson slipped into a pair of jeans and stormed over to the door.
"Keep your pants on!" he admonished the unwelcome visitor as he fumbled for the lighting controls. "DeSalle if you forgot your keychip again I swear I'm gonna kick the shit out of you."
"Lieutenant Hanson."
"Admiral Kirk, sir." The young lieutenant stiffened as he ran his fingers through his tangled hair and furtively scanned through the detritus of DeSalle's no hold's barred poker match in search of his shirt. It was barely six hundred hours according to the chrono on the small table next to the sofa.
"May we come in?" Kirk asked. The tight set of the Admiral's jaw and the grave look of concern in his hazel
eyes made it clear that it was not a social call, and the request for admittance did not leave room for refusal.
Eric stepped back from the entryway, feeling a rush of panic as he realized that Kirk was accompanied by several of the ship's senior officers and a security team.
It could only mean one thing. He and Riley were on their way to the brig. Commander Spock had no doubt already filed charges against them. Conduct unbecoming was a given, with a dereliction of duty added for dumping the unconscious Commander at Christine's campsite.
"Look, Admiral Kirk, sir," his eyes darted around the room like a trapped animal, "I can explain."
Kirk gave Hanson a brief, but warm grin. "At ease Hanson, this isn't an inspection. I can't say my own quarters look much better."
"I can vouch for that." McCoy chimed in, giving Kirk a disapproving frown.
"I'm sorry about the hour, is Lt. Riley here?"
"Aye sir," Riley responded with a bleary yawn.
"Commander Spock appears to be missing."
"Missing sir?" Hanson responded as the anxiety he was feeling flared into full blown panic.
"He left the party at the lake shortly before the two of you, but it looks like he never made it back to our lodgings. We've tried his communicator, but so far he hasn't responded."
Hanson and Riley exchanged a quick glance. "We'd be glad to help any way that we can, sir."
"Did you see anything suspicious along the trail?"
"I was pretty out of it, sir." Riley offered sheepishly.
"And I was pretty busy just keeping him up and moving. Have they scanned for Vulcan biosigns?"
"Apparently not," Kirk sighed angrily. "The facilities here were designed for top level Fleet officials and diplomats; they jam all scanning frequencies for security."
"He looked pretty wasted when he left," Hanson offered hopefully, "he's probably just sleeping it off somewhere."
"Not if he didn't find some sort of shelter." Eric looked back to see Dr. McCoy entering the already crowded room.
"It wasn't that cold." Riley chimed in.
"Not for humans, but if he passed out outside…I'm worried Jim."
"I don't want to start a panic, I'm sure Lt Hanson is correct and he's just sleeping somewhere, I but I think a discrete search party might be in order."
"Riley and I will help."
"Thanks Hanson. Why don't we let you gentlemen get cleaned up and dressed. We'll meet in ten minutes in the main lobby downstairs."
…
"Damn it Bones, this is all my fault." Kirk tuned and offered the doctor a steadying hand.
"You can't blame yourself Jim," McCoy responded, gratefully accepting the proffered hand. "He said he was okay."
"He was drunk on his ass; I should have taken him back to the cabin myself. What was I thinking?" It was a rhetorical question of course, he knew exactly what he'd been thinking. He'd been thinking about impressing a busty young lieutenant who had, in fact, been young enough to be his daughter.
"None of us were thinking any too clearly last night. Hanson's right, he's probably holed up somewhere sleeping it off."
"I hope so Bones. If something's happened to him I'll never forgive myself."
"He's not dead Riley, stop saying that." Eric spotted Kirk and McCoy at the top of the rise.
"You heard what McCoy said, if he spent the night outside it could have killed him."
"We left him with Christine, she's a doctor, and she'd know what to do."
"Then where the fuck is he Eric? We're lookin' at a court martial here, maybe worse."
"We're gonna find him okay. Just keep it together Kevin."
Hanson whispered a silent prayer to any god taking calls, to keep Commander Spock alive until they could find him, and to keep Christine Chapel from finding out what he'd done.
…
Nyota studied the tricorder a hopeful smile slowly lighting her face. "Admiral I know we can't run any sort of scan from above, but what about from ground level? If his communicator is still operational I might be able to use a low level carrier signal to triangulate a position."
Still operational, the simple pronouncement took Kirk's thoughts in a grim direction. No, Kirk reassured himself, you're going to find him, and it's going to be all right. "It's worth a try. "Kirk nodded.
"I'm on it sir."
"Anything Mr Sulu?" Kirk asked as the last of the search team returned.
"Sorry sir."
"I've got something sir." Uhura's smile broadened. "I've got a fix on his communicator it's about ten minutes from here."
"Let's go."
…..
"Down here!"
Kirk scrambled down the brush covered embankment toward Dr McCoy.
"You've got him."
"No, just the communicator, but he was here." McCoy held out the small electronic device a small patch of torn blue denim still clinging tenaciously to the clip.
"Here, over here," Uhura called excitedly. "Look, see how the brush is all torn and matted up to the trail?" Nyota called excitedly. "I think he lost his footing up there and tumbled down here." She moved across to the other side of the small valley where the vegetation was also disturbed. "He would have been disoriented from the fall, and…aha…" she snatched a few strands of indigo thread from a low shrub with a triumphant smile, "He got himself back up the hill but on the other trail."
"Get everyone up to that trail, now." Kirk commanded sharply, his mood lightening at the first solid lead. "He's up there somewhere."
…
