Chapter Eleven - Dammit Jim...
I woke up with the feeling that something was missing. For a moment I just lay on my bed, thinking. What could possibly be wrong? Sargon was dead, that was a fact. The ship was still orbiting Sherok, but there had been no intruder alert. Jim was sleeping down in Sickbay, trying to find a way to-

"DAMMIT!" I yelled, sitting bolt upright and leaping off my bed. I had a gut-wrenching feeling that Jim had taken some crazy, stupid, completely unacceptable risk...

I pulled on my boots and slipped on a short-sleeved blue shirt. I took a moment to run my fingers through my hair and made sure it looked okay, then walked as fast as I could down to Sickbay.

The doors slid open on a quiet, almost completely vacant room. Jim's body still lay on the biobed, life support still functioning. The reassuring beat of his heart was the only sound in all of Sickbay.

"Jim?" I called cautiously, looking around for him. I stopped walking and checked the floor carefully, just in case. I would never forgive myself if I stepped on him. In any case, he was nowhere to be found. He wasn't on the floor, he wasn't on any of the biobeds...where was he?

I stomped over to my deck and flicked the comm switch. "McCoy to Spock."

"Spock here. Go ahead, Doctor." I could hear the background noises of the bridge as he spoke, and realized that I hadn't even bothered to check the chronometer. It was probably around thirteen hundred, a rather embarrassing thought seeing as it would mean I'd slept all day.

"Spock, where's Jim? I can't find him anywhere. Is he up there with you?" I asked, hoping the foreboding feeling I had was wrong.

"Negitive, Doctor."

"Then where the hell is he?!" I felt my temper flare up again, and tried to force down my anger. Easy, Leonard...Jim's probably just roaming the corridors somewhere. He can take care of himself. But I wasn't too sure. That captain has a natural attraction for trouble.

Spock was silent for a moment. "I am not at liberty to discuss it, Doctor," he said at last, a hint of strain in his voice.

That grabbed hold of my attention. "What is it, Spock? What did he do?"

Scotty's voice came over faintly, as if he was on the other side of the bridge. "Mister Spock, I dinnae think we can keep it quiet from Doctor McCoy. Why don't ye tell him an' get it over with? Besides, the Cap'n said he dinnae want anyone knowin' until afterwards, and I dare t' say it's afterwards by now."

Spock sighed, barely audible. "Very well. Doctor McCoy, the Captain beamed down to the planet surface at approximately five hundred hours this morning."

That was NOT what I wanted to hear. Enraged, I yelled, "And you let him go, just like that? Dammit Spock, he could be killed!"

"Doctor McCoy, the Captain is fully aware of the danger," Spock reminded me. "And he is not defenseless. He has control of his 'magic,' and he has a communicator. He has followed through with standard procedure and checked in with the ship at regular intervals."

I ground my teeth together in fury, wanting to storm right down to the transporter room, beam down, and stun Jim with a phaser and then throw him in a lizard cage. "Is there anyone with him?" I asked, forcing my voice to sound at least marginally normal.

"Negitive." Before I could shout some more, he continued. "I am positive that the Captain can take care of whatever he's looking for. And there is nothing you can do to stop him. Spock, out." The communication was cut, so I turned off my comm unit and growled a few choice curses that would make a Romulan blush.

After a few minutes of the tirade, I began to lay out a plan for sneaking down to the planet. Okay, so people know I'm afraid of that infernal machine...how can I convince anyone to get me down there? Am I even sure that I WANT to go down there? Why the hell did Jim go anyway?

I hit upon an idea almost immediately. Scotty was trustworthy, and an expert at using the transporter...and after all, he had managed to keep Jim's trip a secret even from me for a while. Besides, I could always bribe him with a bottle of scotch from my secret stash. That would be more than enough to keep him quiet.

I opened a channel to the bridge. "Mister Scott, I'd like to see you down in Sickbay for a minute. There's something I need to talk to you about."

~~~~~~~

"Ye must be daft, Doctor. That's th' only explanation."

"Scotty, please! This is very important!" I said with measured patience. "I HAVE to go down there and help Jim find whatever he's looking for. And if he gets hurt again, he'll need me."

Scotty sighed. "I dinnae know why ah even try..."

"Let's go," I interrupted, striding into the corridor and heading for the transporter room. I already had a communicator and a phaser, along with my medical kit. All that was left to do would be to beam down and find Jim before he did something stupid. Well, it's too late for that... I thought darkly.

"Doctor McCoy, I think ye've been stayin' around Captain Kirk a wee bit too long," Scotty said as we stepped into the transporter room. No one else was there, thank goodness. If anyone saw me actually wanting to get my atoms scrambled, the jabs would never stop.

"Whatever do you mean by that, Mister Scott?" I asked, stepping up onto the transporter pad.

Scotty had an enigmatic smile on his face. "Nuthin' at'all." He flicked a few switches on the console, then slid the transferal levers all the way up. Everything faded to gold, and I tried not to panic.

Take it easy Leonard...these things are perfectly safe, I tried to reassure myself. It wasn't working. Oh, my blood pressure's definately gonna suffer for this...

I finally materialized on the deceptively peaceful surface of Sherok, and immediately pulled out my tricorder and scanned for lifeforms. No canine life in the area, thank goodness. But plenty of lizards. Well, there was always one way to find out which one was Jim.

I flipped open my communicator. "McCoy to Kirk."

After a moment, a flurry of angry chirping exploded over the tiny unit. I could only guess at what he was saying, and tried to shut him up before he burned himself out.

"Hold on just a minute Jim! I can't understand a word you're saying!" I interrupted. "You're going too fast for the translator to handle!"

I could hear him mumbling furiously, but he slowed down and the translator clicked into place in an instant. I immediately wished it hadn't. *Bones, WHY the HELL did you FOLLOW me?!*

"Why the hell not?" I answered, not in the mood for games. "You came down here with no assistance, looking for who-knows-what, with Henoch still roaming loose and out for blood. I'd say that's enough of a reason for me to come down!"

He sighed heavily. *All right then, Doctor, if you want to help so much...I'm in the clearing where Henoch attacked me the first time. It shouldn't be too hard to find.*

"I'm on my way." I trumphantly flipped the communicator shut and began the short hike to the clearing. It only took a few minutes, during which I took the liberty of recording my surroundings for later studies. This was a science mission, sort of, so anything I could dig up might be helpful.

I don't know why, but I expected Jim to be alone. He wasn't. In the middle of the clearing, there was a small group of feathered lizards. All of them looked almost exactly alike, and having nearly thirty of them didn't help any. However, it wasn't hard to figure out which one was Jim. He was perched on top of a communicator, chattering with the other lizards.

The instant I came out of the woods, however, silence fell upon us rather heavily. A flurry of rainbow colors marked the nervousness of the small animals, and I decided not to move. They might eventually dismiss my presence, or consider me a friend.

Jim looked up at me, expression unreadable. He gestured to a spot on the ground next to him, and I slowly moved over next to him and crouched down. "What are you doing, Jim?" I asked quietly.

He held up one finger, indicating he was busy. One of the other lizards said something, and he answered it back. A cacaphony of chattering ensued, and Jim looked slightly pleased. He nodded, and instantly the other lizards departed in whatever manner they saw fit. One stayed behind for a moment to touch his shoulder, as if reassuring him, before taking flight and disappearing into the green vegetation.

I was puzzled. "What was all that about?"

Jim opened his communicator and used its built-in translator to reply. *I've been talking to the dracongianes for a while, and they know exactly how to transfer me back.*

I frowned, confused by the new word. "The whats?"

*The dracongianes,* Jim repeated. *It's what they call their species.* He waved a claw dismissively. *But that's not important. What is important is the fact that we must find Thalassa. She is the only one capable of restoring me, aside from Henoch. And he doesn't seem too interested in doing that.*

"How the hell do you propose we find her?" I asked. "Do you even have any idea where she is?"

*Actually, I do. She's taken a host somewhere on this planet. Now all we have to do is find her, and convince her to restore me back to the way I was.* He sighed. *However, she hasn't taken a land animal for a host. According to the dracongianes, she's currently infused in some sort of marine mammal, out in the ocean.*

"Dammit."

*Exactly.*