This story takes place in the late movie era, between "The Final Frontier" and "The Undiscovered Country", and I imagine Doctor Christine Chapel as having rejoined the crew at that point.

I got the basic idea for this story is from the sixteenth episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, "Shuttlepod One", but this is not a re-write.

I hope you have fun reading this. I had a lot of fun imagining Spock and McCoy being stuck in a shuttle together. Prepare for some banter!

Stuck Between a Rock and a Spock

Leonard McCoy trudged through the snow on the asteroid, muttering disgruntled to himself. Technically, he was muttering to Spock, had been for the last half-hour, but the Vulcan seemed to have made it a point to ignore him. He could just see his lean figure crouching in the snow some hundred meters away, the environmental suit a stark contrast against the bluish-white mass.

Doctor McCoy reached a point where he could see the ice shining through the snow and lowered himself to his knees. He placed his equipment to the side, and carefully prepared the sample container.

This morning, he had wondered for a short moment if Jim was holding a grudge against him and had decided to send him to this godforsaken ice block as a punishment. There would have been people better qualified to handle this mission. Or at least happier. McCoy was not happy at all.

Jim had sent him, along with Spock, into the asteroid belt to explore – and collect samples of – the microbes and minerals stuck under the prehistoric ice. After setting down on this asteroid, they had ventured outside in their EV suits. They would spend a few hours collecting samples for their research, which would be undertaken in the shuttle. And in the early morning of tomorrow, they would leave this rock again, to rendezvous with Enterprise outside of the belt.

McCoy sighed. Fourteen hours to go. It would be some long fourteen hours if Spock decided to keep up the silence.

He finished taking the sample, diligently bottling the tube of blue mineral, and placing it into the sample container.

"McCoy to Spock. I'm going to move towards the rock formation to our right and continue taking samples there," he said into the suit's communicator, already standing up. "I might move out of sight for a moment."

The line remained silent, and with a frown at the Vulcan, McCoy walked towards his destination. This was bordering on insolence. Maybe it was Spock who was holding a grudge against him, not Jim. Whatever the reason for the Vulcan's silence, tomorrow at this time, McCoy would be back on the ship looking forward to his birthday the next day. If one could still look forward to birthdays at their age. But he was sure, that whatever he might or might not have to look forward to, it would be more enjoyable than this.

Spock, meanwhile, finished taking his sample and stood up. He was quite content with their work today. They were making steady progress, and with the Doctor being quiet, concentrating on the matter at hand was much easier.

Then again, he was being uncharacteristically quiet.

Spock looked around. The Doctor was nowhere to be seen.

"Spock to McCoy. Come in please," he said.

No one answered.

Spock huffed indignantly and began to walk in the direction he had last seen him, following the footsteps. At best, the Doctor was too immersed in his work to talk to him or was holding a grudge out of some reason. At worst, something had happened to him. And even Spock had to admit that it would be close to bad luck if he lost him barely a day before his birthday. And that on a mission the Doctor was only on so that he'd miss the preparations aboard Enterprise.

McCoy must have been suspicious to be selected for this mission. On the way into the asteroid belt, he had said that any member of Spock's research team would have sufficed. Spock tended to agree. Jim had insisted, however, that he be kept out of the way for at least a day until the major preparations were over, and any equipment that might raise suspicions if seen in the hallway was stowed safely away.

The Doctor's footsteps vanished behind a large boulder.

Spock followed them, and almost stumbled over the Doctor who was kneeling in the snow in front of him and collecting a sample of microbes. Maybe he had just been immersed, then.

"Please do not move out of my visual range again without telling me, Doctor."

McCoy didn't answer.

"Dr McCoy?"

Still no answer.

Spock took a step to the side and crouched down next to him. After he failed to acknowledge him, Spock reached out and tapped his fingers against the Doctor's visor.

McCoy flinched violently and fell on his backside. He glared at the Vulcan, his lips moving in a silent outburst of colourful metaphors.

Spock shook his head and tapped his helmet to indicate that he could not hear him, then pointed towards their shuttle.

McCoy nodded and set about packing his equipment away. In the meantime, Spock turned slowly, waving his tricorder around. A subtle energy field was being emitted from the ground around them. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to radiate from the blue mineral that was shining through the ice here and there.

The tricorder crackled, and the display went black.

McCoy followed Spock swiftly back to the shuttle. So the Vulcan hadn't been ignoring him, their communication was down. He berated himself for not thinking the silence out of the ordinary and getting his colleague's attention. For all his preference for silence, Spock usually stuck to regulations and at least acknowledged getting a message. And the haste with which he had urged him to return to the shuttle seemed to forebode a bigger issue.

When the hatch had hissed shut behind them, the Doctor ripped off his helmet and joined Spock in the cockpit.

"Now what's the hurry, Spock?" he asked as he slumped down in the co-pilot seat.

Spock didn't raise his eyes from the control desk when he answered, "The minerals on this asteroid interfere with our instruments. We should leave immediately, while we still can."

The Vulcan pressed a succession of buttons, and McCoy fastened his seat belt as he prepared for lift-off.

"Thrusters non-functional," Spock said, "I'm igniting main engines. Full power."

McCoy heard the roar of the engines as they powered up, and held onto the armrests in case this was going to be a bumpy start.

The nose of the shuttle lifted off the ground and the Doctor breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, a warning light began to flash on the control panel, and an instant afterwards, the navigation displays went dark.

The shuttle crashed back to the ground and the engines died down.

"Seatbelt, Spock!" McCoy hissed through gritted teeth.

The Vulcan ignored him, pushing the same succession of buttons again.

"You're gonna try to fly blind?" McCoy asked, noticing that the navigation displays were still dark.

"I am open to suggestions, Doctor," Spock said calmly and tried to pull the shuttle up.

Just as before, the nose lifted. And just as before, a warning light blinked, as the shuttle came down with a screech. Sparks flew from the navigation console.

When Spock pushed the same buttons a third time, the engines remained silent.

McCoy stared over at the Vulcan, who only shook his head. They had just lost all means of propulsion. They were stuck.

Spock opened a communications channel. "Galileo to Enterprise. Come in please," he said calmly, "we have lost propulsion and require assistance. I repeat: we require assistance. Please respond."

Only static answered, and Spock quickly abandoned this attempt. Instead, he leant over the console and pushed a sequence of buttons and switches. McCoy recognised the inputs for sending a distress signal. When Spock had pressed the last button, the computer gave a short beep, confirming the transmission.

"Well, at least something worked," McCoy grumbled. "Now that they've got our coordinates they can pick us up later today. We'll be back even earlier than planned."

Spock seemed on the verge of saying something as the shuttle gave a violent lurch.

"We're moving!" McCoy cried.

"Our attempts at lift-off have melted the ice. We are sliding backwards!" Spock called over to him. The sound of grinding metal was suddenly filling the cabin as the shuttle slid along on its nacelles. McCoy lost sight of the asteroid's surface as they tilted backwards, accelerating rapidly.

"Do something, Spock, we're falling!"

"I can't!" Spock shouted back. "Engines and thrusters still inoperative!"

Their fall stopped as soon as it had begun, broken by solid rock. The shuttle collided with a horrible crash, bringing them to an abrupt halt. The nose came down again, rapidly, flinging Spock into his console with a thud. A crunching sound came from the back of the shuttle, and for a moment, McCoy thought it had come from Spock.

"Are you alright?" he asked, kneeling next to his seat.

"I am fine, Doctor," Spock said, rubbing his temple, "it's only a bruise."
"I bet. That's what you get for not strapping in," McCoy scoffed. "Honestly, these seatbelts should work automatically."

Spock raised one eyebrow. "They usually do," he said.

"Great. Another thing that doesn't work."

McCoy's day had already begun unpromising, and he was starting to believe in self-fulfilling prophecies. When he and Spock moved to the back of the shuttle, he realised that all their work had been lost, as well. The containers and tubes lay shattered in front of the rear hatch.

He turned to the front of the shuttle, looking out of the window. They could not have fallen very deep, as the surface of the asteroid was visible again, albeit at an angle.

"Now, what just happened, Spock? Why can't we lift off?"

Spock stood next to him and pursed his lips. "It seems the very mineral we have been collecting interferes with the proper function of our technological equipment," he answered. "That is the reason we could not hear each other out there; the EV suits' communicators had already failed. Before my tricorder failed as well, it showed an energy field being emitted from the mineral, strong but concentrated. Its area of influence seems to be some cubic metres at most, which is why we did not notice it before." He stepped closer to the main console, pressed a few buttons, and turned around again. "Our structural integrity is compromised, we've lost shuttle's sensors and scanners already, and I am sure more malfunctions will follow."

"Well, what's still available?" McCoy asked, frowning at this dire news.

"The main computer remains functional, regulating life-support and heating."

"Communications?"

Spock shook his head. "The communications system is compromised."

"Wait a moment!" McCoy whirled around to face him. "Did they even get our distress signal then? Does Jim even know we're missing?"

Spock sighed. He wished the Doctor hadn't asked. "I do not know," he said.

McCoy sank back into his chair dejectedly, having his fears confirmed. To hear Spock admit to a lack of knowledge was, in Leonard McCoy's book, one of the worst things that could happen.

Jim Kirk smiled to himself in the command chair. Sending Bones away with Spock so that their friends could have free reign to prepare the Doctor's birthday celebration had been his idea, and as far as he was concerned, it was working brilliantly.

Doctor Chapel had warned him that McCoy might not like this mission and that he would grow suspicious at being selected. Kirk had told her if that was her way of trying to convince him to let her go with Spock instead, it wasn't working. Surely, they would manage.

"If they don't kill each other," Christine had said, shrugging off the Captain's light teasing. In truth, both of them silently agreed that a little time together might even benefit Spock and McCoy.

"Captain, I'm receiving a distress signal. Priority one!" Uhura's urgent voice interrupted his thoughts. She turned around in her chair. "Sir, it's the shuttle!"

Kirk stepped to the balustrade and waited for the com officer to continue. All eyes on the bridge were resting on them.

"They had a complete engine failure," she reported, reading from the display.

"Coordinates?"

Uhura shook her head. "Unknown, sir."
"Unknown?"

"Their coordinates aren't included in the message. The signal has been compromised."

"Hail them."

"Aye, sir." Uhura opened a frequency. "Enterprise to Galileo, can you hear me? I repeat, Enterprise to Galileo," she said. Then, she turned around again and shook her head. "The frequency is dead, sir."

Through her earpiece, Jim could hear the rustling of static.

"Anything on sensors?"

"Nothing, Captain," Pavel Chekov said, shaking his head grimly.

"Mr Chekov," Kirk said, sitting back down in his seat, "lay in a course towards their last known coordinates."

"Aye, sir. Course plotted and laid in. Their last known whereabouts are their entry point into the asteroid belt."

"Very good, full speed ahead. That's where we'll start our search."

"Aye, sir, full speed ahead," Sulu said, and the ship accelerated at his touch.

"They could be anywhere," Chekov murmured, more to himself than anybody else on the bridge.

"We'll just have to look everywhere then, and leave no stone unturned, Pavel," Jim said, answering the quiet worries of the navigator in a nonchalant tone.

But his heart sank a little when he looked at the vast asteroid belt ahead. They really could be anywhere. And the shuttle's reserves would run out long before Enterprise had combed it all, practically flying blind if the shuttle continued to somehow evade sensors.

To be continued...

There we are, they're stuck. Feel free to tell me how you have liked it so far. And we'll see how well everyone is doing during the next chapters.