Kirk was livid. He had been angry with Spock before but this was too much! Spock was missing while the ship was in turmoil and he didn't even have a logical excuse for his absence except that he was attending his wife? Kirk had tried to be patient, he tried to take Bones' advice and not interfere with Spock and Uhura and their 'bonding' but he could not let them interfere with the smooth functioning of his ship. The Enterprise came first and foremost with Kirk and there was a time when he thought she came first with Spock as well.
Now, Kirk was no fool, he understood a man couldn't put his job before his wife. That was one reason Jim planned to never marry so he never had to make such a choice. But as the first officer, Spock had made a commitment to his captain as well as to Starfleet. And as a Vulcan, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. But Spock was no ordinary Vulcan and right now he was behaving more like a lovesick teenager rather than the ship's reliable first officer.
The crew of the Enterprise had just experienced some kind of mass psychic phenomenon. There were reports from all over the ship of people having oddly vivid erotic dreams and other crewmembers suddenly taken with feelings of extreme arousal. There wasn't a person on the ship who wasn't affected in some way.
Bones and the medical staff were running tests on the crewmembers who were most affected by the phenomenon, but as soon as the symptoms wore off there was no lingering trace to study. They were not sure how to even log the events that occurred. Sure the Enterprise had come across some odd things during their mission, they had experienced giant single-celled organisms, doomsday probes, sentient androids, and more energy beings hell-bent on sucking the life out of them than Kirk cared to count. Whatever this thing was, it didn't seem to suck the life out of you, rather it made you want to suck someone else, Jim thought wryly.
"What is this thing, Bones?" he demanded during his briefing with the chief medical officer.
"Jim, I tell you I don't know. I've run every test imaginable and everything comes up normal, not even a trace of hormonal imbalance. Whatever it is it's not viral or bacterial, we detect no new forms of radiation, no foreign particles or chemicals in the atmosphere or unusual energy signatures, nothing. Spock has been sweeping the ship with sensors and he detects no further unusual activity. Whatever it was it vanished like a ghost." Mccoy snapped his fingers.
"A ghost you say? Or maybe a sex demon?" Kirk thought out loud, rubbing his chin.
"A what?" Bones asked baffled.
"A sex demon, Bones, like a succubus."
"What in the world are you talking about?" McCoy demanded.
"A succubus or an incubus. I overheard Spock and Uhura talking about it on the bridge the other day. Remember I told you about it. They were whispering and making eyes at one another."
Bones rolled his eyes, "So? What does that have to do with this situation?"
"The succubus Bones, it's a mythological sex demon that sucks the energy out of people by seducing them in their sleep. Legend has it that the incubus or succubus work in tandem with the female demon extracting the semen out of men and the incubus, the male demon impregnates unsuspecting women with it."
"What! Why in God's name would anything do that?" McCoy asked with disgust.
"They can't reproduce or something, because they are demons, because they can. Bones who cares why? It's just a legend. The question is, could something like that sex demon be aboard this ship?" Kirk asked.
"Jim, why would we have a sex demon aboard? Where would we have picked it up? We've barely been on any missions lately. We've been to Vulcan, Argelius, Starbase 6, and that vaccine run. None of those places reported anything unusual like this and we haven't visited any uncharted planets or systems to pick up a supernatural hitchhiker."
"Maybe not Bones, but its the only clue we have."
"A legend that two horny newlyweds were whispering about is not a clue," Bones groused.
"Spock was not horny." Jim protested.
"Aw, that's nice that you're defending your friend, but you haven't seen him the way I have when he's got that fever. When he's with Nyota he's definitely horny."
"Let's forgot about 'Horny Spock' and get back to business."
"No, Jim lets not. I think you may have something here." McCoy said as his eyes lit up with the embers of an idea.
"What?"
"Horny Spock."
"Bones-" Jim protested.
"No, Jim hear me out. Spock gets the fever, right? He gets driven to mate at the cost of his life. Vulcans are telepathic and Spock and Uhura are bonded in some telepathic link that we can't even begin to understand. So what if this thing is catching, remember Uhura had the fever too."
"But you said she caught it from Spock because he implanted some psychic thing in her? His katra? Are you suggesting that he has somehow infected everyone on the ship with it?"
"I don't know. We don't even know anything about the fever let alone the psychic bond Vulcan couples share. The Vulcans are so tight-lipped you can't even access their medical records without being on the planet or on their private networks. Believe me, I've tried and I ran into red tape at every turn."
"So what then?"
"We get Spock and Uhura in for tests first thing and I try reaching my contacts on Vulcan. M'benga is on Vulcan at a conference on xenobiology and interspecies virology. Since he's on the planet he should have access to their records. And I'll see if Ambassador Sarek or Amanda have any input on the matter if possible."
"Alright, but Bones, don't tell Spock and Uhura what we're testing them for."
"I don't even know what we're testing them for." Bones complained.
"Still, keep this to yourself for now." Jim insisted.
"Why? They have a right to know, besides Spock is not stupid, he'll figure it out."
"Be that as it may, I don't want to upset Uhura. She's been through enough already and she and Spock are finally settling down."
"Alright, I'll get them in here and try to come up with a plausible excuse."
"Good Bones, because right now they're the only clue we have."