Someone grabbed him and pulled him upwards. He was carried a few steps and then set down again. He heard the hissing sound of a space-secure door closing. He managed to open his eyes. He saw Spock, in his orange suit, typing away on a small terminal. With a jolt, the capsule broke away. They had made it!

Five days earlier

Riley's alleged ghost-sighting had left its mark on his ability to sleep that night. When he had entered the bathroom (two quarters shared one bathroom to save space) Spock had already been standing there, brushing his teeth. His First had looked him up and down before asking: "Captain, have you rested sufficiently?" Kirk had rolled his eyes. "YeAh, SuRe ThInG.", he had replied in the most ironic tone since the invention of irony. Spock had nodded and returned to cleaning his teeth.

Now he was on his way to the bridge when he encountered Scotty, waiting for a turbo lift. "Mister Scott, have you found a solution to the little incident that occurred yesterday?", the Captain asked his engineer. The other shook his head. "No, Captain. I checked the lock on the exo-skeletons, but it hadn't been pandered with. I also checked the security tapes, but there's nothing on them to explain what happened."

Kirk frowned. "But it must show how the lid could lift itself?", he wondered. "Well, Sir. There are no cameras in the bot booth itself, you see." Kirk thought for a moment. "Have you questioned your personnel?", he asked next. "Of course. But nobody had seen anything, and I trust those people." Kirk sighed. "Keep up the good work, Scotty.", he told him and let him enter the waiting turbo lift.

The bridge was virtually empty. Some other ensign than Barrows was sitting in front of the helm, and the Caitian Lieutenant M'Ress was leaning against the communication console. "Is everything as expected?", he asked the Lieutenant. "Yes, Sir.", she purred. Only now Kirk realized that she had some odd contraption in her lap. "What is this?", he asked, immediately intrigued. M'Ress smiled and plucked on some flat piece of metal. The whole thing began to swing and make an unearthly sound. "It is a musical instrument.", Kirk stated. M'Ress purred in agreement.

The intercom system behind M'Ress beeped. She hit one of the buttons. "Sickbay to Captain.", McCoy's voice said. Kirk sat in his command chair and activated the speaker. "Yes Bones?", he asked. "I want to speak to you in person, if you don't mind.", his Doctor answered. What could Bones want of him? "I'll be there in five.", he said into the speaker.

McCoy was walking in circles when Kirk arrived. "What's the matter?", the Captain asked his friend, slightly uneasy. "Do you think you can speak to Command? I think the crew is in desperate need of shore leave." "Why do you think that?", Kirk wanted to know. "It is only nine hundred and I already had twelve people in here thinking that they'd be going crazy." This was indeed rather unusual, to say the least. "Crazy? In what way?", the Captain asked. "Things like the constant feeling of being watched and people thinking they saw something in the corner of their eyes. Two people also told me that they had things disappear and appear again while they looking for them.", McCoy explained. "That sounds to me like typical space sickness.", Kirk stated. "Yeah, I guess it is. It's just the amount of people suffering from it that has me thinking."

While conversing, they had taken their seats in the CMO's office. "We already have some shore leave scheduled for next month. I doubt Admiral Nogura would grant us any more.", Kirk explained. They both sat there, thinking. "However, maybe I can organize some kind of event for later today.", Kirk came up with. McCoy snorted. "What were you thinking of?" "I realized that quite some people on this ship play some kind of instrument. Maybe a concert?" McCoy lifted one eyebrow and let it down again. "Yeah, why not? Better than nothing I guess."

So, Kirk found himself on the Rec Deck. Normally at this time of day, almost nobody would be here. But due to the nature of their current mission, many people were out of a job and the Rec Deck was filled with chatter and the sound of game machines. Harb Tanzer, the man in charge of this part of the ship, was kneeling approximately in the middle of everything and manually cleaning some stain out of the carpet.

Kirk stopped next to him. "Mister Tanzer?", he announced himself. The other turned off the hand-vacuum and stood. "Yes, Captain?", he asked, slightly surprised about the Captains presence. "Some people have gotten a bit space sick; I wonder if you have noticed.", the Captain stated. Harb nodded. "Yes. Some poor Ensign came in here yesterday, looking all scared. I managed to calm her down eventually. Mister Sulu's creepy plant didn't help that cause at all."

"Maybe we could organize some get together to raise morale." Tanzer's eyes brightened. "What were you thinking of, Sir?", he asked. "Well, I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it, but maybe some kind of concert?" Harb nodded excitedly. "People could be volunteering. Should I make the announcement our will you?", he asked. Kirk smiled. "I believe this would be within your area?"

With the planning of the evening event in good hands, Kirk went to his quarters. He called up Scotty and asked him for the tracking number on the security box that had been opened. With this information, he searched through the ship's database, looking for any information why somebody may want to open it. He did find some protocols on the thing. It had been on a dozen ships within the last decade, but it had never contained anything really worth stealing. At last, the box had ended up on the Enterprise, according to its protocol with nothing inside. 'Curious.', Jim thought. 'Maybe it was just a stupid prank and I'm overthinking more than I should be.'

Part of the afternoon was spent in the conference room, where all senior officers came together for their weekly meeting. This week, it was mostly Spock talking about how the star mapping was proceeding in a satisfactory manner. After that, Chekov spoke about how he had checked the ship's course a few times but hadn't found anything out of order, and Sulu explained some of his experiments he had performed in Hydroponics.

"How is Wendy doing?", Kirk couldn't stop himself from asking, to the confusion of almost everyone else. "Mister Tanzer wants me to take her back, apparently she scares the crew. I have however persuaded him to let her where she is for at least a week. People just need to get used to her, that is all." Kirk nodded. "Bones, what have you been up to?", he asked his CMO. "Well, I divided my time between chasing my Captain for his physical, cleaning and dying of boredom.", McCoy counted off with his fingers. "Doctor, you are obviously not dead.", Spock remarked. McCoy shot him a fiery glance. "What do you know anyway, hob…" "Shut up, both of you.", Kirk silenced them.

He turned to Uhura. "And you, Lieutenant?" Uhura shrugged. "Not much. I have been reading some linguistic journals." Scotty came next. "Apart from this freaky box, nothing of note has happened." "Vhat box?", Chekov wanted to know. Lieutenant Scott spent a few minutes explaining what had occurred the other day, followed by Kirk repeating what he had read earlier. "It was probably just some prank. Bones is certainly not the only one on the ship who is bored.", he concluded.

Kirk ended the meeting at this point. Sulu and Chekov were almost at the door before Kirk remembered what he had wanted to say. "I almost forgot. There will be a concert on the Rec Deck this evening. Everyone who wants to may perform.", He looked in Uhura's direction, knowing that her singing had quite a few fans among the crew.

Tanzer had outdone himself again. He had managed to put up a small stage (probably with some of the crew's help), had decorated the Rec Deck with some colorful banners and was currently operating a bar in one corner. The game machines where stacked on another and the floor was covered in cushions. About half the ship's crew were already there, some holding their instruments or a sheet with lyrics. He could also see Sulu next to his plant, apparently trying to soothe the bush.

Within the crowd, he could make out Bones waving for him. Next to him was Spock, clutching his Vulcan harp. He made his way to them, occasionally greeting people while doing so. When he finally sat down next to McCoy, there was a drink pushed into his right hand. Kirk looked at it critically. "Don't worry. It's the kind without alcohol.", McCoy informed him. Kirk tried some. It could have been worse. He turned to Spock, who was sitting behind his CMO, tuning the harp. "Are you going to play, Mister Spock?", Kirk wanted to know. The Vulcan nodded. "Miss Uhura has asked me to accompany her singing."

Just then, Harb Tanzer walked on stage and announced the beginning of their concert. First came some ensign Jim barely knew, carrying a keyboard on stage. She played something classical that was quite pleasant. She was followed by a group of engineering ensigns with an assortment of wind instruments. Up next was M'Ress and her strange looking instrument. After that, several other followed, either playing in groups or solo. Finally, it was Uhura's and Spock's turn. The crowd cheered.

They had just stepped on the stage when suddenly there was the sound of several lights exploding, followed by darkness. Absolute darkness. It was probably only due to the rigorous training the crew had gone through that kept a mass panic from developing. Somebody found the door and opened it, which led to light shining into the hall. The audience slowly left the room. Within the twilight, Kirk managed to find his engineer. "What was that?", he asked him. "I don't know.", the Scotsman replied. "This type of light doesn't explode just like that." Kirk exchanged a glance with McCoy who was right behind him. "Most curious.", Spock, who had just joined them, commented.

Sulu came sprinting to their small group. "Just before the light went out, Wendy was hissing louder than I thought possible. I guessed you should know.", he told them, breathless. "Before, you say?", Kirk asked. "Mister Spock, what do we make from that?" The Vulcan thought for a second. "This was no technical failure. Someone or something must have caused it, otherwise the plant would not have anticipated it."