Since these chapters were short, you get a two-fer. (Couldn't switch POV mid-chapter. . . it was a no-no)

~Coop

CHAPTER 13

Kirk glanced at the chronometer on the captain's chair and couldn't quite suppress the grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth. It'd been nearly two hours since McCoy beamed down to Eltron's third moon, and so far, neither he nor Aggie had requested to return to the ship.

Sometimes the simplistic plans were the best, and Kirk had a firm belief that there was something romantic about being the only two people on a planet-moon (unless the other person happened to be a Gorn). Kirk gave a small grunt. Then again, one of those two people happened to be named McCoy, and his friend's insecurities could mess up even the best laid plans. Namely his.

Kirk stroked the control panel on the captain's chair, appreciating that his relationship with the Enterprise held so little drama, and let out a contented sigh.

Chekov had clearly been listening to his Captain's conflicting tones and shot a curious glance from his place at Navigation. It was obvious that his navigator could not see the purpose in maintaining orbit over a nondescript moon, and it was also obvious that his curiosity was soon going to get the better of him.

And what will I tell young Pavel when he asks? Kirk wondered. That they were there to—what? There to support the local wildlife? The birds and the bees? No doubt the young man would be eager to point out the moon contained no animal life. Kirk bit the inside of his mouth to keep from laughing.

"Captain?"

Kirk took a steadying breath. "Yes, Mr. Sulu?"

"I'm getting a strange sensor reading. It's like my short-range sensors are . . . blurred."

"Instrument error?" Kirk asked, all amusement erased from his thought. He moved to stand behind Sulu's station to read the display figures himself.

"When were the sensors last calibrated?"

"Mr. Scott did them himself just last week," Sulu said, looking puzzled as he continued to stare at the readout.

Kirk leaned around Sulu to engage the long-range sensors. It was an old engineer's trick to ensure whether sensors were actually accurate or not. If he scaled the long-range sensors back to the point where the short-range sensors took over, he would be able to get a comparable reading. The image would be grainy, of course—the scanners' lenses were developed for specific ranges—but at least it would tell him if there was an instrument malfunction.

But as Kirk dialed back the long-range sensors the readout became distinctly blurry, as though he was looking through a bubble, the center magnified over the outer edges.

A cold tingle of alarm sped up Kirk's spine the second before the bubble began to move across the screen.

"What the—" Sulu started but Kirk shouted over him.

"Raise the shields! Red alert! It's the Bird of Prey."

Uhura's palm slapped down on the alarm as the ship's shields snapped into place. Kirk could hear her over the alarm, talking swiftly yet calmly as she made contact with Engineering, as per protocol.

"So close?" Chekov asked, shocked. "The Romulan wessel has never gotten vithin short-range sensors before." He hit several buttons on his console to bring up another read-out. "Vhatever it is, it's moving, Keptin! It's now on the starboard bow!"

Kirk rested a hand on the back of the command chair but remained standing as he twisted to face his first officer. "Specific readings, Spock?" During their patrol, they'd only managed to ping it twice with long-range scanners before it had disappeared.

Spock straightened, his face unreadable. "No additional readings on the anomaly; however, the lack of a perfected cloaking device would suggest an earlier model of a Romulan Bird of Prey."

Kirk's gaze returned to the viewscreen. He felt uneasy. Why had the Romulan ship finally decided to maneuver so close to the Enterprise? Were they testing the Bird of Prey's cloaking device or the Enterprises' sensors? No, Kirk decided, that wasn't it. They had to be aware of being pinged by long-range scanners during their last encounter.

So if they knew they couldn't hide, what were they doing?

The Romulan Empire had denied any connection to the ship, and Kirk couldn't see any gain it would have from such blatant and trivial excursions into the neutral zone. Both the Empire and the Federation had been slowly building—not an alliance by any means—but a mutually beneficial trade agreement in which to build on. So that left Kirk wondering, just who was he dealing with?

Kirk turned to Uhura and made the gesture to kill the alarms but to keep the ship on red alert.

The bridge fell silent.

"Open hailing frequencies."

"Frequencies open, Sir," Uhura replied.

Kirk stared at the screen, hard, then began speaking.

"Attention Romulan vessel. This is Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise. You are operating within the neutral zone illegally. Disengage your cloaking device now or we will take your continued presence as an act of terrorism and respond accordingly."

Kirk made a slashing gesture at his throat and Uhura terminated the connection.

Everyone waited in silence as seconds ticked past. There was a faint creaking as Chekov shifted in his chair. Kirk's eyes flicked to the moon they were orbiting. Somewhere on its surface, one of his best friends and an innocent woman were oblivious to the Romulan warship flying several miles above them. And completely defenseless against it. He felt a pang of regret over his ill-conceived plan. He'd let compassion for his friend momentarily override his good judgment, and now McCoy and Aggie might pay for that mistake with their lives.

A loud beep from Uhura's panel made Chekov jump.

"We are being hailed, Sir."

Kirk let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Put it on the viewscreen."

The image of the moon wavered then was replaced by that of a Romulan.

His dark eyes scanned the bridge, missing nothing, until they settled on Kirk. His thin lips stretched wide to form a smile. "Ah, Captain Kirk! It is an honor to meet you."

Kirk always found it unsettling to see emotion freely displayed on features so similar to that of Vulcans and yet, he thought a snake could produce a more genuine smile.

Smiling pleasantly, Kirk nodded at the screen. "And may I ask just who I am honoring?"

The Romulan didn't hesitate in tilting his head in greeting. "Only a humble scientist, I'm afraid. I am called T'Nok."

There was a discrete sound from behind him on his right. It could have been a gentle throat clearing, but Kirk knew better. Uhura, so talented in alien tongues, was skeptical at the Romulan's introduction.

Lies already, Kirk thought as he took the moment to sit in the command chair.

"Mr. T'Nok, you have entered into the neutral zone on several occasions and violated the terms set forth between your Empire and the Federation. May I ask your purpose?"

A look of exaggerated sorrow crossed the Romulan's face. "Alas, it was not my intent to enter the neutral zone. My navigator was taken unexpectedly ill a few standard cycles back, yet we have continued our search of a mineral known as R'Ruurn." He shrugged affably and smiled again, revealing abnormally long canines. "I'm sure you are familiar with scientists, Captain, blissfully unaware of life outside of our micron-scopes."

"Yes, I'm afraid I do," Kirk said, crossing his legs to suggest a casual attitude. The Romulan was lying, but as Spock would say, he needed more data as to what and why.

"I'm sorry to hear about your navigator," Kirk said, then lied smoothly. "I have a doctor onboard familiar with Vulcan physiology. I have been told that Romulans and Vulcans share a common ancestor, perhaps he can be of assistance."

T'Nok's face was momentarily taken aback by the offer, but he quickly recovered. "A most gracious offer, Captain Kirk. Your compassion is equal to your military mind. Please standby as I convey this offer to our navigator. T'Nok out." Abruptly, the Romulan's image disappeared from the viewscreen.

Kirk's lips flattened. If there was a gravely ill navigator, T'Nok should have had no need to confer with him; the offer would have been accepted immediately.

"Weapons?" Kirk demanded, spinning to face his first officer.

"Energy levels normal, Captain," Spock said, straightening. "There is no indication of imminent attack."

"Sir," Uhura said firmly, causing Kirk to spin in the other direction.

Her beautiful face looked irritated. "That Romulan is lying," she said, narrowing her eyes. "He called himself T'Nok but that's a character out of Romulan lore, Sir. It means "Trickster" or "Mischievous One," much like Earth's Loki from Norse mythology."

Kirk raised an eyebrow. "Late night reading, Uhura?"

She shook her head and gifted him with a smile. "More like homework, Sir. I came across the reference while creating a communication profile for Mudd's buyer a few weeks back. If he used the identity again with similar contact coding, I'd be able to track him."

"Chakek, wasn't it?" Kirk asked, feeling as though pieces were suddenly clicking into place. "The Romulan Boogeyman?"

"And now we have The Trickster," Spock said evenly. "A similarity that is far from coincidence."

"Hail them," Kirk said quickly as a nasty feeling slid into his belly. His suspicions were confirmed when the Bird of Prey did not respond. "Damn it!" he hissed, squeezing the command chair's armrest. The Romulans had been buying time. They were, no doubt, the same ones that Mudd had been dealing with. And there was also no doubt that, for a tidy sum, Mudd had informed the Romulans of the last known location of his "cargo."

"It's Aggie," Kirk announced grimly. "They're the Romulans who were purchasing the cryo-unit from Mudd."

There was a fiercely protective look on Sulu's face as he turned to look at his captain. "Phasers or photon torpedos, Sir?"

Kirk cursed himself. "I don't think it's come to that just yet, but the fact that they aren't targeting us is a concern all by itself." At their confused look, he steeled himself and said, "Aggie's not on the ship."

He motioned at the image of the moon that had returned to the viewscreen. "Dr. McCoy and Aggie beamed down to the moon's surface a short time ago for some . . . " Kirk hesitated, searching for the right words. "Medical leave," he finished lamely.

It took two seconds for Chekov's eyebrows to disappear beneath his brown bangs. Blushing furiously, he turned to stare at the navigation panel. A hint of a smile on Sulu's lips told Kirk that he hadn't been the only one aware of the drama on board the Enterprise.

"So what are they going to do?" Kirk mused out loud. "Their scanners can't penetrate our shields."

"If they've been monitoring our internal communication bands prior to shields, they could have–" Uhura was saying before she was interrupted.

"Captain," Spock's smooth voice cut in. "Sensors indicate that someone has beamed down to the moon's surface from the Bird of Prey."

Shit, Kirk thought and turned to look at Spock. "How many?"

"One," he said, straightening from looking into his scanner. His dark eyes were intense as he locked eyes with Kirk. "Whoever beamed down to the moon used our last coordinates."

"Keptin!" Chekov cried. "The Romulan ship has raised its shields!"

"Increased power to weapons," Spock said calmly, glancing at his display. "They are aware of our scans."

"Fair enough," Kirk murmured, narrowing his eyes. "Mr. Sulu, load photon torpedoes."

So I need to pause a bit. The chapters are done (except reworking the mature scenes into PG), but I'm not sure if anyone is reading. Honestly, I could use a little encouragement. I edited these chapters but, well, not sure if it is coming together. Maybe I offended all of you at the end of chapter 10? LOL. . .it was a concern of mine. Anyway, a few more chapters and we'll be at the halfway point. Think it's worth it to Trek on?

~Cooper