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An hour later, Sid had still not been found.

Captain Kirk was sitting in his chair on the bridge, when Doctor McCoy came charging out of the turbolift. "Jim!" he cried. "I just walked into sickbay, and the whole place has been trashed!"

"Trashed?" the Captain repeated.

"Yes! A huge mess! Medical supplies everywhere, some broken, and no doubt some hopelessly lost. One of the computers has been tampered with; I don't know how I'll ever set the records straight again!" The doctor was nearly hysterical.

"Calm down, Bones," the Captain said. "We'll get the mess cleaned up, and then deal with whatever is missing or broken."

"It's that sloth! I just know it!" McCoy continued. "What was Starfleet thinking? This so-called specimen is likely to destroy the entire ship, jepordize the safety and sanity of the entire crew! They could have at least warned us before we brought something like that onto our ship! Sometimes I wonder how those bereaucrats ever made it through the academy, neglecting important things like this! Who knows what that sloth will do next? Suppose it gets into engineering again and sends us out into the middle of the neutral zone with no power? Or worse--"

The com link on the Captain's chair lit up. "Kirk here," the Captain said.

"We have contained the sloth, sir," came the voice of a security officer.

"Good work," Captain Kirk told the officer. "And where is the sloth now?"

"In the brig, sir."

"You might want to post a guard," McCoy suggested.

"All right," Captain Kirk said, ignoring the doctor's comment. "I will be right down there." He stood up and stepped onto the turbolift.

"I'm coming, too," McCoy muttered, as he followed.

They went down to the brig, and found Spock standing outside a cell that contained Sid.

"Hello, Sid," Captain Kirk said, coming over to stand next to his first officer.

The sloth was standing just inches from the forcefield, poking at it with his stick. "Ooh..." he marveled. "Magic."

"Not exactly."

Sid looked up at the Captain. "I demand to be released," the sloth said.

"The last time I set you free, you destroyed sickbay."

"I was looking for my stick," Sid explained.

"I see... Well, did you find it?"

"Yes!" Sid proudly held the stick above his head. "My keen eyes and sharp wits were no match for your hiding place!"

"Hey!" McCoy shouted suddenly. "That's mine!"

"No," the sloth said, putting the stick behind his back. "My stick."

"That's not your stick, that's one of my hypos! Give that back!"

"No, it's mine!" Sid insisted.

"Look, Sid, that could be dangerous. Let me have it and I'll find your stick for you, all right?"

"I like this better than my stick," the sloth said defiantly. He held the hypo in front of him again, examining it. "It's grayish-shiny color..."

"Silver," Spock corrected him.

"Yeah, yeah, you and your technical terms," Sid said, waving a hand dismissively. "But it's so... so... wow...!"

"I'm deactivating the forcefield," McCoy announced. "Be ready to catch it if it runs." He deactivated the forcefield and stood right in front of Sid. "Give me the hypo, Sid," he commanded.

"No!" the sloth cried, hiding the hypo behind his back. "It's mine. You evil kidnappers!"

"I thought we already went over this. We are not kidnapping you."

"Mine."

McCoy reached out to grab Sid, but the sloth ducked and bolted past him. Captain Kirk tried to grab Sid, but missed. Sid ran down the hallway, yelling, "Aieee! I'm freeeee!"

Suddenly, Sid tripped and fell, landing right on the hypo he was carrying. McCoy hurried over to the sloth and retrieved the hypo. He looked at the hypo, then down at the sloth.

"What was in that hypo, Bones?" the Captain asked.

"Just a sedative, luckily... or unluckily, depending on how you look at it."

"I see..." Captain Kirk walked over to the unconcious Sid and nudged him slightly with his toe.

"He'll be fine in a couple of hours, Jim," the Doctor said. He looked down at Sid. "What should we... ah... do with it?"

The Captain shrugged. "Put it back in the cage, I suppose... Lock it up. Tightly."