Captain Kirk sprinted towards the rescue capsule. He could see his First in command standing inside and waiting for him, looking rather strange in his orange biohazard suit. Just a few more meters…

Suddenly, a piece of debris was under his boot, sending him to the floor with a thump. "Starfleet is never going to believe me.", he murmured to himself before he blacked out.

Six days earlier

Of all the possible ways a starship could be used, star-charting was by far the most boring, Jim thought while doodling on his PADD, his fourth coffee of the day in hand. He sighed. Uhura looked at him in understanding.

Apart from the two of them, there was only one other person on the bridge. Ensign Barrows, a young man fresh from the academy, was sitting behind the helm. The ship was flying on quarter impulse and slightly to the right side, so the sensors would be able to measure more stars than they would have otherwise. Mister Chekov had meticulously programmed this course a few days prior, and Ensign Barrows just had to be there in the case of an emergency.

Kirk was reasonably sure that Barrows was playing some old-timey arcade game on the helms display. Normally, this would be a court-martial offense, but Kirk decided to ignore it instead. He looked down on his PADD, where he had doodled a representation of himself on some beach, under a beach umbrella, with a Romulan Sunrise in hand. He started to add a palm tree.

"Nice birch.", Uhura suddenly said. The Captain was a bit startled to find her standing on his right side, right in the spot where Spock usually stood. "Lieutenant, back to your station.", he ordered, more playful than severe. "Also, this is a palm tree, not a birch.", he added. Uhura snickered. The Captain crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat. "I am a Captain, not an artist.", he said, trying to imitate his CMO. Now Ensign Barrows was laughing too. Jim questioned whether he really understood the reference.

Following a sudden impulse, he stood. "Uhura, you have the conn.", he ordered. "I am going to see how Spock is faring." He left without another word.

Spock was in the astronomy lab, commanding some of the science team around and studying a freshly made map of some unexplored corner of space. Kirk knew that there where roughly another thirty people on the other side of the ship currently engaged with calibrating and aligning the sensory array.

At first, Spock was too mesmerized with the 3D-projected map to realize that his Captain was standing right next to him. "How are the maps coming along?", he asked when his First finally did acknowledge him. "We are progressing according to schedule.", Spock informed him. "That's at least something.", Kirk murmured absentmindedly under his breath. "Captain?", Commander Spock asked, one eyebrow raised. Kirk turned to him. "Hmm?", he asked. "What is something?", Spock wanted to know. Kirk waved his hand dismissively. "Just forget about it."

Kirk didn't want to go back to the bridge, so he stayed and watched his Science Team work for a while. After some time, he realized that some of the younger crew members where watching him nervously. Remembering his own time as an ensign, he decided to leave his people to their work. Emptying his now since long gone-cold coffee in a swig, he stepped back at Spock's side. "Meet me at the Sports Deck later?", he asked hopefully. Spock shook his head. "I cannot.", he told him, gesturing to the map. "I am, however, amendable to dinner.", he added like an afterthought. "Nineteen-hundred?", the Captain asked. Spock nodded. Satisfied, Kirk left the astronomy lab.

He decided to see what Bones was up to. Not much he guessed. With crew physicals almost finished and engineering only on fifty percent capacity, there was likely nobody in need of McCoy's care.

On his way to sickbay, he encountered Sulu, arms slung around a giant potted plant. Sulu greeted him, but his plant hissed. Startled, Kirk moved a step backwards. "I'm sorry Captain, Wendy is very sensitive.", he gave as a way of explanation. "Wendy?", Kirk asked, bemused. He was well aware that Sulu had named all his plants. "Yes. I named this beautiful Lady after a classmate of mine. The human Wendy would always sense if somebody was in a bad mood from a mile away."

Now, Kirk was intrigued. "Is this one of the telepathic plants from Regulus IV?", he wanted to know. "Yes.", Sulu nodded. "She makes this hissing sound you have heard whenever she senses negative emotions of any kind." "Fascinating.", Kirk commented and could stop himself just in time before he raised an eyebrow. "Where to are you carrying … Wendy?", he asked Sulu next, happy to have finally found somebody to talk to. "To the Rec Deck. You see, she thrives in an atmosphere of positive emotions, so I decided to bring her to the place made for people to enjoy themselves." Sulu adjusted his grip on the pot. "Also, she is getting quite heavy.", he remarked while smiling rather apologetic. He went on his merry way again, leaving Kirk behind.

Sickbay was almost as silent as the bridge had been. Only some instruments beeped. As Kirk walked in the direction of Bones' office, he was suddenly grabbed from behind and thrown on a biobed. "Gotcha.", he heard somebody grunt in a Georgian accent. "Boonees.", Jim whined. "You know how they say: Gotta catch 'em all. Especially when you are doing crew physicals." Jim rolled his eyes. "Nobody says that.", he protested. "Well, I do.", Bones returned and jabbed him with some needle to take a blood sample. Jim closed his eyes. 'Just get over with it.', he thought to himself. He had never managed to overcome his irrational fear of doctors that he had acquired during his childhood.

"How's mapping going?", McCoy asked his patient, whose eyes where still closed. "Fine. These new sensors are really worth it.", Kirk answered. "The hobgoblin must be buried in work to the tip of his ears and still loving every second of it." Kirk had to laugh at that. "Oh, yes, yes he is.", he agreed with his friend.

When McCoy was almost finished fussing about him, the intercom system went off. "Engineering to Captain Kirk.", they heard Scotty say. Before Bones could do anything, Jim had hopped off the table and rushed to the wall module. He pushed the button. "Yes, Mister Scott?", he asked. "Captain, you better come down here. It is hard to explain over the intercom." "I'll be there in a moment. Kirk out." He turned to the doctor. "Sorry Bones, gotta run." He shrugged and left sickbay before Bones could stop him.

He found Scotty in some cozy corner on the Engineering Deck. Robot parts and tools equally where strewn on the floor. In the middle of it all was a transport box. It was one of that type they used to extra-securely store things of high worth in. The lid had been lifted and now lay on the floor next to it.

"What is going on?", he asked his engineer who was just putting on an exo-skeleton. "Aye. This is why I called ya.", He pointed to the opened box. "I have been using that box as a working table to repair our bots on, but when I came back from my coffee break, it was like this." "Somebody opened the box?", Kirk wondered. "Aye.", Scotty answered. "Is something missing?", the Captain wanted to know. "I don't think so. That blasted thing was standing here since before our five-year mission. I always presumed it was empty."

Kirk stepped forward to look at the titanium-lined box's insides. "But that isn't what has me wondering. Try to the lift the lid, will you?" Kirk did so, but he couldn't get the lid to budge one bit. "That darn thing is almost one-hundred and fifty kilograms." Scotty moved over to where he was standing, now fully strapped into his exo-skeleton. With its help, he managed to place the lid back on the box. "The exo-skeletons are over there in this room.", Scotty lectured his Captain and indicated the direction. "I am the only one who has the code to the lock." "Curious.", was the only thing Kirk could think of.

He was sitting at a table with Spock in the officer's mess. They were eating dinner and he had just finished explaining to Spock what had occurred in Engineering today. "Fascinating.", Spock commented and raised an eyebrow. Just then, the doors to the mess hall happened to open. Lieutenant Riley rushed inside, breathing heavily. He leaned against the bulkhead. Kirk was at his side in a heartbeat, Spock close behind him. "Riley, are you alright?", he asked the Lieutenant. Riley nodded. "For a moment, I thought I had seen… well, Sir, I thought I had seen a ghost." "A ghost?", Spock asked. "It is really stupid. I guess it was just the lights.", Riley tried to explain himself. Kirk smiled patted his Lieutenant's shoulder. "It's alright, Riley. Everybody gets space happy at some point."

When he was trying to sleep later however, Kirk was overcome with a great sense of unease. Something was going on, but he didn't know what it was just yet. It took him a long time to find some measure of calm.