This story is taking a turn I didn't expect. Let's see where it goes.

Where is Spock?

Dr. McCoy beamed aboard the Enterprise alone and his heart nearly broke when he saw the faces of both Uhura and Jim, who were anxiously waiting for Spock's return in the transporter room. He knew how much both of them loved Spock, and it was going to be hard telling them he had left Spock alone in the hands of Starfleet goons.

"Dr. McCoy, what the hell happened down there?" Jim demanded before he could even step off the transporter pad.

"Doctor, where is Spock?" Uhura asked with a trembling voice.

Shit! Of course, they didn't know anything. They probably thought Spock was... "Now don't you two go thinking the worst. Spock is ok, for now anyway." He tried to reassure them.

"For now? What does that mean!" Jim asked.

McCoy looked around at the transporter crew, who was studiously pretending to not listen. "Not here. Let's go to my office, please Jim? You too Lieutenant Uhura. We need to talk."

Uhura looked to be frozen in place, so Kirk took her by the shoulders and lead her to the lift following McCoy's lead. He wondered what the hell was going on? Where was Spock? Why did Bones come back alone? Kirk looked down at Uhura. She was trembling in his arms. Bones better have a damn good explanation for coming back without Spock.

When they all marched into McCoy's office and settled down in the seats facing his desks, Bones went to his personal "medicine" cabinet and poured all of them a drink.

Uhura turned her nose up and pushed her glass away as if the smell made her sick. "Doctor, I don't need a drink. I need to know where my husband is. Where is Spock!" she demanded.

Jim had no such complaint about the drink presented to him and he downed it quickly, fearing he would need the liquid courage for what Bones would tell them.

McCoy downed his own drink as well, and then sat down to face his friends. "Ok, you two. I know I panicked you by coming back alone, but I had a good reason. First, Spock is alive and well. The antidote worked and he was fine when I left him."

Uhura deflated in her seat with relief, but Kirk was not satisfied by that answer. "Why did you leave him? Where the hell is he?" he shouted.

"He's somewhere down on Betazed in Starfleet custody."

"In custody? On whose authority? What the hell happened down there, Bones? Stop stalling and start talking?" Kirk demanded.

"Spock received the antidote, and the doctors assured us it cured him. We were just waiting for some brain scans from Vulcan to come back so they would medically clear him for release."

"And?" Jim asked with impatience.

"There was some kind of delay. They put him in a waiting room to rest and while we were talking, in walks one of Admiral Komacks's goons with a security force in tow.

"What!?"

"They arrested Spock and took him into custody," Bones said.

"Arrested for what crime. He couldn't have done anything illegal while being treated on Betazed." Jim said.

Bones looked at Uhura who hadn't uttered another word and just sat in her chair looking shocked. He didn't know how to break the news to her except to be straightforward. "They arrested him for the kidnapping and assault of Lieutenant Uhura, plus the unauthorized commandeering of a Starfleet vessel with more charges yet to come, I'm sure." Bones said.

"You've got to be kidding, Bones. That stuff happened months ago. I thought the Vulcans took care of it with the Federation? Why are they coming after Spock now?"

"That's a good question, Jim. I've told you all the information I could gather. I'm afraid the Betazed government is cooperating with Komack's people. They hustled me out of there as soon as the security team took Spock into custody."

"I knew something was fishy about this whole setup. Why divert us to Betazed in the first place? Komack must have planned this from the start. They never had any intentions of allowing us to reach Vulcan." Kirk said getting up and pacing back and forth in the small office space.

Uhura stood up too. "Where is my husband? I have a right to see him. Where is Spock!" she shouted.

Kirk stood next to her and took her into a firm embrace. "I don't know Lieutenant. I don't know, but I intend to find out."

*/*/*

Spock listened to the charges being read against him with his usual calm facade, but he was seething inside. He immediately knew that Admiral Komack was behind this arrest. It had been foolish to think that Komack would just forget about him after he left Vulcan. That Starfleet would just ignore the fact that he had kidnapped a fellow crewman and stolen a shuttle. But he had been so focused on his relationship with Nyota he had paid little attention to the political atmosphere in the federation and the factions behind the scenes that were actively working to undermine Vulcan and himself.

Komack was part of a group of Starfleet officers who thought Starfleet was the Earth's purview. Let other federation members build their own fleets, never mind that Starfleet was built from the combined resources of those federation planets that anti-alien groups hated.

Spock had no intentions of being the federations poster boy for diversity and inclusion, but he believed it would take people like him, non-humans joining the ranks of Starfleet, to wrestle the organization out of the hands of people like Komack who wanted Starfleet for humans only. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations was a philosophy the humans, and especially Komack needed to learn.

Those goals were all well and good, except for the fact that right now he was in the hands of Komack and his followers. He was not worried for himself, but what would they do to those who had helped him. Nyota, Jim, and Bones were in danger of falling victim to Komack and his witch hunt, especially Nyota. She had been named in the complaint. She would be their star witness. But there was no way in hell Nyota would testify against him, not willingly. But what would they do to her if she refused to comply?

The best defense for Nyota, Jim, and Leonard would be to cooperate with the prosecution and testify against him. It was the only logical way they could save their careers, and very possibly their lives. But Spock already knew they would refuse to cooperate. So he would have to help them make the logical decision, whether they liked it or not.

*/*/*

It took a lot of work and he had to call in every favor owed to him, but Kirk found out where Spock was. They had transported him on Komack's personal shuttle headed back to starbase 6, Komack's current home base. Komack had intended to hold an inquiry hearing there where he would preside as president of the court and no doubt unilaterally rule against Spock. But Jim could play the same games as Komack could.

With help from the Vulcan ambassador to the federation, they arranged for Spock to be held on relatively neutral territory, Starbase 11. It was a central port of call and there was always a large contingency of command rank officers available to serve as officers of the court. Whatever Komack was up to, he'd have to crawl out of his little rathole on starbase 6 and travel to Starbase 11 instead. Now if only they could get this phony inquiry out of the way before Komack made another move, they would be square.

The Enterprise would be arriving at Starbase 11 only a few hours after Spock's ship was scheduled to arrive. Captain Kirk still had a lot of work left to do in that time. He had a few more friends to reach out to and favors to promise, but by the time he saw Spock again, he wanted to have all the pieces in place to spring him from this trap. In the meantime, he hoped that Spock was sitting tight and waiting for the cavalry to arrive and rescue him. Most importantly, he hoped Spock was not planning some ridiculously elaborate plot that would only make matters worse.