"Jim, have you been down to talk to Jamie yet?"
"Not yet, Bones, it's been a long day. I'm still on the bridge with Pendleton getting those manifests in order for the . . ."
Bones let out a not very elegant curse. "You need to get down there and talk to your daughter! Manifests be . . ."
"I can't." Jim was sad, guilty and angry about it all at the same time - but he had duties that had to come before Jamie. It was how life was.
The doctor had the grace to sigh. "I know . . . I guess I'm just taking out my frustrations on you. Those stupid painters had the absolute ignorance to light an acetylene torch near that tank. They could have blown themselves to smithereens. As it is, they're going to be out of commission for a while with healing burns. The one who got trapped in the pressure lock broke both legs and an arm. I've set all the broken bones, but he needs to be immobile for a while. As if that's not enough, a couple of the kids have come back from the fun park with a type of . . . well . . . hives."
"Is it serious?"
"No. Just an allergic reaction to some of the local flora in the area. I've treated them and they're back in their quarters. I'm expecting the other shuttle to come in any second with the older group. Your nanny said that four of the teenagers were complaining of upset stomachs and headaches."
"From hives?"
McCoy chuckled. "Can't say until I take a look at them, but I'd say there were experiencing their first hangovers. When I asked the nanny if they'd eaten or drank anything unusual, she said they'd consumed quantities of the Mavaro Designer Water." He laughed a little harder. "It sounds safe - but it's almost 50 proof! You know the advice Starfleet used to give cadets . . . about a new planet."
For the first time all day, Jim smiled. "Guess that's a heck of a way to learn not to drink the water."
"I'll let you know how things go. And Jim, go kiss your daughter good-night. That's an order."
"Yes, Captain Bones," he parried back.
I'll try. If there weren't fifty million things to do before then . . .
########
Jamie was still awake when Nanny Banks came back from the fun park.
Nanny Banks was not happy that Jamie was awake. "What on earth are you doing out of bed?"
It didn't seem the right time to say she had never gone to bed. That silly Yeoman had come to bring supper a long time ago. Even though she said Dr. McCoy had sent the food, Jamie had pretended she wasn't hungry. Dr. McCoy had not kept his promise to come back and help with the puzzle. It made her mad at him too. So, Jamie did not eat the yummy smelling spaghetti and meatballs - real meatballs too. Well, not with the yeoman watching. Jamie waited until she'd gone and then she ate every bite. Even if she was mad at Dr. McCoy, he sent good food.
After she ate, Jamie tried to watch one of the movie disks Daddy had sent to her computer. It was a funny movie, but Jamie didn't feel like laughing. She felt sadder and like she might cry any second. She turned off the movie and tried to send a Sky Greeting to Gramma instead. Although Gramma's face came up on the screen, it was just a recorded greeting and a cheerful message telling Jamie to leave a message. Jamie was too unhappy seeing Gramma to say anything.
The time seemed like it dragged and dragged and dragged after that. Everything Jamie tried to do made her feel sadder and sadder . . . like her heart had giant stones in it and it was going to go kerplunk to the bottom of her feet. The rooms were so quiet and scary. She turned on all the lights in the quarters and waited for Nanny Banks. . Jamie was almost glad to see her, even if she did holler.
"You aren't even in your night clothes! And I bet you haven't brushed your teeth, have you?"
"No."
"Then go, right now, on the double. I want you in that bed in five minutes or you won't get the surprise I brought you."
A surprise. Jamie wanted to pretend she didn't care - after all - Nanny Banks had left her alone all day. But she was too curious not to ask. "What is it?"
"It's Fairy Floss but it's too late to eat it tonight. I'm sure it will give you nightmares. It has to be packed with Mavaro sugar."
Jamie watched Nanny bring a bright purple confection out of a plastic sealer and put it in the cooling unit. "You may have it tomorrow."
"It looks like cotton candy." Gramma had always taken her to the county fair, and they ate lots of cotton candy. Funny, Jamie's favorite color there was purple too. How did Nanny Banks know these things?
"It's similar, now get moving."
Although she thought about going slow just on purpose -because she was still mad at Daddy and Nanny and Dr. McCoy - Jamie decided she was too tired to care. Now that Nanny was back, the rooms didn't seem so quiet or scary. Right away Nanny turned on the music computer that played softly and she dimmed the lights in Jamie's bedroom and pulled down the quilt. Jamie put on her nightgown, brushed her teeth and climbed into her bed. It felt all comfy and cozy.
"There, now see you go right to sleep." Nanny pulled the quilt up to Jamie's chin and brushed the dark curls off her forehead. "Goodnight."
"Nite." Jamie yawned. Maybe I'm more tired than I think. Before she could wonder if Daddy would come kiss her goodnight tonight, she was fast asleep.
Jamie didn't know how much later it was, but a sound woke her up. There were funny noises after the sound - shuffling and a moan - maybe even bumps like someone had knocked over a chair. Lying in her bed, she pretended her ears were as pointy as Mr. Spock and tried to figure out what the noises were and why Nanny Banks wasn't more careful.
The door to her bedroom slid open and at first Jamie thought she might be dreaming.
Daddy?
The shadow in the door had a man's shape - big and tall - but as it came closer, she couldn't help a little scared scream from coming out. The body was like a human, but the head was an elephant! A computerized voice whispered, "Don't be afraid. No one is going to hurt you."
Jamie's heart pounded under Gramma's quilt and a scream got trapped in her throat. The thing got closer and closer to the bed. Her heart bumped and pounded, and Jamie tried to scream so Nanny would hear. The scream rolled into a ball inside and it was like she couldn't breathe at all. Panicked, she sat up and crawled to the end of the bed. The elephant man came closer with a rag in his hand. The hands were human but wore black gloves. The rag covered Jamie's nose tight with a sick sweet smell. Jamie pushed and clawed to get away, but the hands holding her were too strong. She couldn't breathe at all . . .Gagging, she tried to take in air.
Daddy! Help me! She thought right before the whole world went black as deep space.
Dark . . . so dark. Jamie moaned and tried to turn her head. It felt too heavy. A low humming sound filled her ears and then from far away she heard a metallic echo. It sent waves of pain into her head and her tummy felt sick. Very sick. She wanted to call for Daddy, but her mouth wouldn't move. Nothing would move - not even her fingers. Jamie thought she would be sick but then in the next second everything got darker.
######
It was not a morning Ava had been looking forward too. After a sleepless night, she'd finally gotten out of bed almost two hours before her disciplinary hearing. Like someone led to the firing squad, she moved as slowly as possible, packing up her things. Of course, the Captain wouldn't put her off the ship at Mavaro, but he'd tell her she would be leaving at the Denali Base. She waited, nervous with dread, until she decided to go up to her friend, Carolyn's quarters. She'd surely be up, making Jamie's breakfast and preparing the little girl for the day.
The trouble was, Ava could not get Carolyn to open the door. Her voice and handprint were not authorized just to walk in their quarters. She pressed her hand to the door scanner. "It's Ava," she spoke, expecting to hear a welcome, "Come" from her friend's side. Nothing. She tried it again and said, "Jamie? It's your teacher. Can you open the door?"
Nothing. Maybe Carolyn was ill. She'd complained of having stomach cramps after eating all that indigestible junk at Disney Mavaro the night before. Although unlike the older children, she hadn't drank any of the water which turned out to be an alcoholic beverage. For just a minute Ava wondered if the Captain would also hold this against her - letting half the class come back intoxicated. Then she decided she didn't care. Captain Kirk would do what he wanted to do. Right now, some wiggle of worry kept her from thinking too much about her own problems.
"Carolyn? It's Ava."
No one answered, which worried Ava a great deal. Then suddenly, she thought of a reason. They had already left to go to the learning cycle. Carolyn, knowing how nervous she would be, had probably planned to show up early. She'd told Ava that she would go to the briefing with her. That was it. I must have missed them.
But when she got to the learning center, no one was there except Javik. He often came early and stayed late to finish his lessons - lessons interrupted during normal hours by Centauri.
"Have you seen Nanny Banks and Jamie this morning?"
"No, ma'am," he answered.
That was strange. But maybe they'd gone out to eat at the dining hall or Jamie had been called to have breakfast with her father. Ava had no plans to interrupt that. But she did check out the dining hall and sent a discreet request to Lt. Uhura to page Carolyn.
A few minutes later her answer came - Carolyn had not answered. Something was wrong, she could feel it in her gut.
Ava hurried back up to the Officer's Deck. If no one answered this time, she was calling security.
#####
After another half-sleepless night, Jim Kirk was not ready for the new day to begin. He still hadn't decided what to do about the teacher at the disciplinary hearing. The night before, he'd had several brief, but enlightening conversations with various members of the ship about Ms. Balderdasian. He'd even gone so far as to ask advice of those whose opinion he respected.
While everyone admitted that the teacher had been at fault in not reporting Jamie missing earlier, no one was ready to ship her away yet. Although the teacher's actions had inadvertently caused Jamie to wind up in the Mavaro prison, she hadn't intended anything so drastic to happen.
"Sure she made a mistake," Bones argued over a late nightcap, "I'm not saying you can overlook that. And I'm not too sure she should have allowed Jamie and Baxter to wander around like she did - but Jim, her motives were for the best. She was trying to help Jamie to adjust."
"That's what bothers me, Bones. It's one of the things that's hard about this Children in Space program. I don't want the children sequestered from everything aboard ship forever and certainly when their deck is finished, we won't have to be as strict, but right now I need to know they are safe. Now that I know Jamie's been roaming around freely, it bothers me. I'm not so willing to overlook that."
The doctor shrugged. "It's your decision but remember this - she's a good teacher. Starfleet recommends her, she's been highly decorated in Academic circles and the kids seem to like her."
"That's all well and good, but her negligence led to my daughter being taken prisoner on Mavaro."
"You know, Jim, you might be overreacting to this a little. I talked to Jamie awhile after she got out of the prison. It scared her because she thought she was being put in the brig - but the impression I got is that she thought it was more like a time out than anything horrible. She had no idea they planned to lock her in and throw away the key. She's just a kid and she'll bounce back from the experience a lot faster than we will."
It had given him a lot to think about. Lt. Uhura had also put in her opinion which ran similar to the doctor's. Give the teacher another chance.
Lying in bed, trying to steel himself to make a decision, Jim at first didn't notice the security alarm. Then it caught his attention and he opened the channel to see what was happening on his ship. "Security to Officer's Deck - Cabin C -" Jamie's room! It took him three seconds to yank on pants and a shirt, stamp his feet into boots. Outside Jamie's door he found the teacher and two security officers.
"What's wrong?"
It was the teacher who answered. "Carolyn and Jamie aren't answering in the door. I thought at first maybe they overslept, but there's no response at all."
He moved to the door and placed his hand on the lock pad. "Kirk." The door responded to his command and slid open.
"Sir, let us proceed," one of the Security officers cautioned, but Jim was already in the door heading for his daughter's room. The door was propped open, the lock jammed. It only took a glance to see her bed was empty, the quilt tossed back.
"Jamie" he called pulling aside the bedclothes, looking in the shared head, searching under the bed, behind the furniture. His heart pounding, he finally let his mind catch up to the fear clenching his throat, obstructing his breath. Jamie wasn't anywhere in the room. He turned into the living and kitchen area, noticing all the activity centered around someone on the floor. His heart rammed into his throat and fear seized him with a deathly grip. He could never remember being so frightened. A small puddle of blood seeped along the pinkish tiling of the floor . . .
"Jamie?"
"Sir! It's the nanny!" At the same time the other guard hit a com and ordered, "Sickbay, we have an injury . . ."
The teacher knelt beside her and said, "She's still alive. Oh, why don't they hurry? Carolyn, hang on."
"Where's my daughter." Jim let the words fall into a sudden silence. "Has anyone seen Jamie?"
"She's not here, sir," one of the guards said and held out a recording disk. "But, we found this."
Slowly Jim reached out and took the disk, noticing that etched into the surface were words, "For Captain Kirk." His hands shook a little as he slipped it into the nearest computer. The Security guards crowded around as static filled the screen, then settled into a darkened picture - too dark to show where the disk had been recorded. Someone - man? woman? He couldn't tell - someone wearing an elephant mask and speaking through a universal translator told the bad news.
"Captain Kirk. If you ever want to see your daughter alive again, you will deposit
500,000 credits into the banking coordinates I'll give at the end of this message. You have twelve hours." The message ended except for a list of numbers - the banking coordinates.
He didn't realize he'd stopped breathing until he coughed and chocked in air. One of the Guards pressed the computer to eject the disk. "We'll get right on this, Captain." He said, then as he turned to leave the room he murmured, "I'm sorry. We'll do our best to get Jamie back for you."
"What the devil's going on here?" Bones asked coming through the door. "Jim?"
"Jamie's been . . ." the word was almost too hard to say. "Kidnapped."