The next few hours passed as if in slow motion. All they knew was that Jamie had been forcibly taken by person or persons unknown. Security got right onto the problem and began a thorough search of the quarters for any clues left behind. They called in other crew members and under Mr. Spock's guidance began to search all the recording devices that might have given them information about who had entered Jamie's quarters, attacked the nanny and taken her. They ran all the tapes from the recorders - including the so-called Nanny Cam that kept track of Jamie's quarters in bursts of half hour segments. It didn't take long for them to give him the worst news of all. Someone had tampered with all the recorders that would have seen who entered Jamie's room and who'd taken her away. Whoever had taken Jamie knew what they were doing. They'd managed to slip in and out without leaving a single 'footprint' behind.
The news rapidly got worse. Although neither the transporter nor the shuttle had been used to take Jamie off the ship, there was no way to tell if she'd been beamed off or taken off some other way. Not with all the recording devices scrambled or erased. If this were some type of terrorist group or even someone from Mavaro with a political agenda, they might have kidnapped Jamie just for the ransom. If it were an individual, the possibilities were endless.
Thinking it might have been someone from the Mavaro prison system, in retaliation for Jamie's early release, Jim had some of his most diplomatic crew members exploring the possibilities in open dialogue. As far as Lt. Uhura could find out, no one had taken responsibility. King Hescate, himself, expressed deep concern and swore to do everything in his power to find out if someone on Mavaro were guilty.
Lt. Uhura had also tracked down the banking code the kidnapper had given. "It's what on Earth would be known as a Swiss bank account," she told Jim at the three hour mark. "Totally untraceable. You can put your credits in and the kidnapper can get them out. Then if someone ran a trace later, there'd be no way to prove you put them in or the kidnapper took them out."
Without any options, Jim had commanded her to go ahead and send the credits to the bank. Credits he could replace . . . his daughter's life was at stake.
"Bones?" He hit the com and called Sickbay. "Is the Nanny awake? Was she able to tell you anything?"
Bones sigh told him the news would not be good. "She's not awake yet and won't be for awhile. She took a pretty good blow to the head. Eventually, she should make a full recovery. But, what gets me is why someone hit her at all."
"I suppose they wanted to get to Jamie and didn't want her to stop them. Nanny Banks is skilled in every type of bodyguard tactics."
"No, you don't understand. I ran a scan on her when I first got to the scene. Someone shot her full of a memory blocker. She still had it in her system. Even if she'd watched the person carry Jamie out, she wouldn't be able to remember two seconds later. Hitting her was just . . . spite."
"What are you saying, Bones?"
"I'm saying she's not going to remember anything about last night or this morning or whenever this all happened. And depending on the strength of the memory blocker, she might not even remember her childhood or even her own name. We just have to wait until she wakes up to find out."
It was a blow he hadn't expected. He'd been hoping the Nanny knew something. "All right, Bones." He sighed. "Let me know if anything changes. Kirk out."
Mr. Spock came to stand alongside the command chair. "Captain, I have been reviewing this crime with the Security team."
"And?"
"There are several opinions. One is that a person or persons unknown either beamed or otherwise took Jamie off the ship somehow. Without our recording devices operational, it would be impossible to know if there were any type of unidentified energy surges which would prove this. In which case the odds are . . ."
"Please don't quote me the impossibility of it all."
"Very well." Mr. Spock raised an eyebrow and went on in his calm, unhurried manner. "However, after studying all the evidence may I suggest a more probable possibility?"
"Go on."
"I believe, Captain that we must look aboard ship for your daughter. There are three reasons that lead me to believe she could still be aboard, hidden somewhere. One, the Nanny was attacked. If someone had the capability to just lock on Jamie's coordinates and beam her off the ship, they would have no need to bother with the Nanny at all. Because the Nanny was harmed, it would be logical to assume someone needed to come through the door to gain access to Jamie. Since Nanny Banks has a Security One level, it stands to reason she would not have given access to anyone unless it was a person she knew and/or trusted. Which comes to reason number two - the use of the memory blockers. It would be logical to assume it was someone she knew from the . . ."
"The ship!" Kirk jumped out of the chair and strode to Lt. Uhura who'd been unashamedly listening in. "Uhura, I want you to send a coded message to Wilkins in Security. He's to begin a thorough search of the ship at once. Fill him in on the fact that the kidnapper might be someone on board the ship. Although I hate to think it might be a member of my crew, we have to accept that possibility."
"Captain, if I may suggest. There are others onboard ship who are not crewmembers."
Jim snapped his fingers. "The workers on the Children's Deck! Which of them could change the computer recording devices to cover their crimes? Spock, Uhura . . ." he looked around the bridge, "Pendleton! I want all three of you going over dossiers of all crew and non-crew personnel aboard ship. Find out who knew enough to pull this off. Also check everyone's banking business . . . I want to find out who needed credits so badly they'd kidnap my daughter." His gaze went to the chronometer. "We have less than five hours until the kidnapper's deadline."
For the first time since he'd seen Jamie's empty bed, he felt a surge of hope. If Jamie were aboard the Enterprise, he'd find her.
Less than five minutes later, one of the Security team called the bridge. "Captain, we found another recording disk. It has further instructions."
It sounded ominous.
"Meet me in briefing Room A."
The second recording disk showed the same elephant masked face, used another type of universal translator and was brief. "When the credits have been accepted into the code I gave you earlier, put the ship on Yellow Alert. Your daughter will be released. However, if you do this under false pretenses and the credits haven't been sent, beware. Your daughter won't ever be safe again."
"Yellow Alert," Jim sat back in his chair pondering this request. "Mr. Spock has presented the theory that Jamie is still aboard the ship. Having someone ask me to call a Yellow Alert would give some indication of that. Everyone on board ship would hear it."
"With all due pardon, Sir," Wilkins interrupted, "other ships in the area or even someone down on the planet could know that we were on Yellow Alert too.
With the right kind of tracking device."
"True enough. But, let's suppose that Mr. Spock is right. Is the ship still being searched?"
"Yes, sir . . . we have secured general quarters and now we're working our way through Engineering, Children's Deck, shuttle deck and cargo holds. If your daughter is here, we'll find her."
He hoped so. Back on the bridge he received Uhura's assurance that the credits had been accepted into the kidnapper's account. "Yellow Alert," he ordered and the claxon's began to clang.
Daddy's coming, Jamie. Be brave a little while longer.
#######
From far away Jamie heard a loud, hurtful clanging in her ears. She wanted to put her hands over her ears but somehow her arms wouldn't move. She moaned and a voice whispered, "Hang on, kid." Then she realized someone was carrying her somewhere and her hands were tied together. Jamie woke up a little more and knew that she was slung over someone's shoulder in a bag or something. Heavy cloth, hot and sweaty covered her all over. There was a tiny slit in the bag and she peeked out, even though the light hurt her eyes. She squeezed one eye shut, then opened it again. It watered and blurred, but she could see down a pant leg and a foot in a regulation Starfleet boot. The back of the boot had a funny mark like where it has brushed up against paint or something.
While she was thinking this and blinking, the person carrying her dumped her on the floor. Jamie's head bumped on the hard surface and she whimpered. A horrible smell pinched her nose and she wished she could move her hands over her nose. The person who'd dropped her walked away. Jamie could hear footsteps going fast. At first it was so light and bright her eyes burned. Then suddenly the darkness snapped everything black. Jamie gasped, terrified. She wanted to scream in the worst way but her mouth felt dry as dust. No sound came out. Even closing her eyes didn't help because she could feel that horrible black around her.
Thrashing around, she tried to work herself out of the bag or untie her hands but it just made her hotter and sweatier. What if she couldn't breathe in here? What if all the air got sucked up and gone and she died? This time she managed a scream. A tiny mouse-like scream but she got it out. Then despite her dry mouth she screamed a little louder. She screamed and screamed and screamed until everything got bright and light. There were footsteps and people and shouting. Lot of people hollering and pulling her out of the stuffy bag. Dr. McCoy was there, "It's all right now. Everything's going to be all right." Then he hollered at someone else, "Tell the Captain she's all right!"
The light hurt her eyes but Jamie saw a wall with big bubbles of color - red, yellow, green and blue. The rec room on the Children's Deck, she knew. Someone else untied her hands and another pair of hands, soft and gentle began to wipe her face and murmur calm words. Dr. Chapel. Even then, Jamie couldn't stop screaming and crying. Jamie felt the little sting and hiss of one of Dr. McCoy's old hypos and the whole world felt like it was floating away. This time, Jamie didn't care.