3 Months Later
"Captain, I'm picking up a signal." Uhura turned to Kirk as she spoke, holding her earpiece and focussing on the garbled sounds she was hearing.
"What is it Lieutenant?" Kirk asked, standing and making his way over to her. Watching her listen and concentrate, he waited patiently for her to reply.
"It's weak Captain, I'm trying to clean it up now." Uhura gave him a quick nod and then began to switch and click the buttons and dials in front of her. "It's an old ship Captain, it seems to be in trouble." Kirk turned to Spock.
"On screen." He ordered, turning to look at the expanse of space in front of him he could barely make out the small vessel but it was clearly drifting and without power. "Life signs?"
"One Captain." She answered.
"Life support?" He asked.
"Yes Captain, but no power to the engines." Uhura confirmed.
"Can you open a channel?" Uhura turned back to her station and then nodded in confirmation. "This is Captain James T Kirk of the USS Enterprise, please respond." Kirk waited, listening to the static and interference coming from the other ship. "My name is James T Kirk and I'm…"
"I heard you the first time!" The rough sounding voice filled the bridge. "Took you long enough." Kirk instantly took a dislike to the individual but took a calming breath.
"You're engines are down, we can beam aboard an engineering team and see what the problem is."
"Life support too, soon enough." The voice interrupted, Kirk turned to Spock for confirmation, the Vulcan nodded back.
"Alright, we'll beam you aboard while we carry out the necessary repairs."
"Great, much appreciated. Don't forget to tell your Engineers not to blow up my ship." Kirk indicated to Uhura to close the channel, when she had he let out a low sigh.
"He sounds like a character." Kirk joked uneasily. "Mister Spock, assign a security team to the transporter room, I don't want to take any avoidable risks." Spock raised his eyebrow and nodded, then taking a step forward bowed his head forward in concern.
"Captain, I'm detecting prohibited items on board. He is most likely a smuggler of some kind." Spock reported.
"Keep two security officers with him at all times," Kirk pressed his communicator. "Scotty?"
"Aye Captain?"
"Get over there and fix that rust bucket ASAP, I want this guy off my ship."
"Aye Captain."
"It's good to meet you Captain Kirk, in the nick of time as well! I don't think that thing would have lasted much longer." Kirk's gut instinct had been right, as soon as he had walked into the transporter room and seen how the man was leering and joking he knew he wasn't respectable. Yet, he plastered on his best smile and shook the man's hand. He hadn't planned on meeting the man at all but when he had read the list of prohibited items on the man's ship his curiosity had got the best of him.
"And you, Mister…?"
"Archer."
"Mister Archer, do you need medical attention?" Kirk took in the man's bruises and cuts on his face, he had clearly been in a fight.
"These?" Archer asked, pointing to his face. "It's nothing, really."
"It doesn't look like nothing to me Mister Archer."
"You should see the other guy." Archer joked, Kirk smiled tightly but ignored his inane gag.
"At any rate, let one of our Doctor's take a look at you." The man nodded and followed the Captain out of the transporter room. As they walked down the corridors he saw Archer taking it all in. "What's your line of work Mister Archer?" Kirk asked politely.
"Oh you know, this and that. I've recently had to branch out, I was a facilitator by trade." Kirk persevered.
"In what Mister Archer?" He asked as they entered the turbolift.
"This and that." Kirk found himself biting his tongue, as they left the lift and entered the med bay Kirk quickly turned to Spock.
"I want as much information on this guy as we can get Spock, now." He whispered quickly to his First Officer. As Spock walked away Kirk turned back to his guest. "Well, this is the med bay, follow me please." Kirk walked towards Doctor Langhorn, who was stood with one of the Nurses.
"Doctor Langhorn, this is Mister Archer, he's our guest and while his ship is being fixed up I thought it best you patch him up a little as well." Doctor Langhorn passed the PADD back to the Nurse who quickly walked away.
"Alright Captain." Langhorn looked up and instantly creased his brow. "Mister Archer? What seems to be the problem?" He asked, making his way over and telling the man to sit up on the bed.
"Had a run in with an old friend." Archer laughed but he was nervous, Kirk could tell. Langhorn went ahead and began treating the man's cuts and bruises.
"How did this happen?"
"The usual, you know how it is." His smarmy charm was beginning to irritate Kirk.
"No, I don't." Langhorn replied, completely devoid of any kind of sense of humour.
"Where were you heading Mister Archer, when you encountered engine trouble?" Kirk asked casually.
"The Sorophema outpost."
"That's dangerous territory." Langhorn remarked.
"I'm a dangerous man." Archer growled back, his face serious. When Langhorn stopped what he was doing and glared at him Archer broke out into a big smile and began laughing. "I'm joking! Doctor, no need to be so serious!" Langhorn just continued to glare at him.
"I need to go get something, I'll be right back." He muttered and quickly walked away, if it meant that Archer was sat there in pain for a while longer so be it.
McCoy was in his office working on the latest crew medical reports, a typical day for the CMO although looking at the small lunch box on his desk filled with pasta reminded him that he was seeing Carla after his shift. Between shifts, emergencies, away missions and conferences they spent their time together. He picked up his PADD and started writing.
McCoy, Leonard Lt Cdr (EA) 11:10:
you have time for lunch?
His PADD chirped a moment later.
Collins, Carla Lt (EA) 11:13:
Always! I'll come to you.
Around twelve Carla made her way from her office to the med bay, she enjoyed their lunches together. It didn't happen often, one or the other being pulled away to attend to something essential. It was typically McCoy who had to cancel, which he unfailingly apologised for, much to Carla's protestations. So, on the whole McCoy would end up working through his lunch, it was only recently that he had made the time to stop and eat something and that was only because Carla would pass him a lunch box filled with leftovers when he had stayed in her quarters.
Entering the med bay she spotted the Captain flanked by two security officers. She looked out of the corner of her eye in interest as she made her way past towards McCoy's office. Carla didn't think twice about it, there was always something going on.
"Lieutenant Collins." She heard Kirk's voice shout out from behind, being mindful not to roll her eyes at the disruption she turned and smiled politely.
"Yes Captain, can I help you?" Carla answered, Kirk broke away from the two officers and whomever else he was stood with and walked towards her. She looked over his shoulder and noticed that there was a man sat on the bed but her attention was drawn back to Kirk when he started speaking.
"I just wanted to say hello and that I received feedback recently from the diplomatic council, they were very impressed with your contribution to the Bolian talks." Kirk checked in with her periodically and was always the first to give his acknowledgment to her work.
"Thank you Captain, that's good to hear." Carla replied. Kirk started speaking but Carla didn't hear the words, her attention was diverted to the sounds and motions behind him.
"Sir, sit down!" One of the security officers had raised his voice.
"YOU!" The stranger had stood and was beginning to walk towards her and Kirk.
"Sir, sit down now!"
"I don't believe it's you!" Carla creased her brow and focussed on the stranger's face, Kirk turned at the same time, his arm instinctively stretching out in front of her as a means of protection. Carla felt like all the air in her lungs had escaped and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't fill them again, the man's face was so familiar yet she couldn't place him. All she knew was that her gut was telling her to run.
She saw a flurry of movement.
It was him.
It was the auctioneer.
He was brushing Kirk's arm to one side, his own outstretched towards her. The security officers were still yelling, training their phasers onto him. All she could see was the anger in his eyes as his hand wrapped round her throat and they plummeted to the floor.
"You fucking bitch! You cost me money!" She gripped his wrist and twisted hard, he immediately let go and yelled out in pain. She could see that Kirk was behind him, his arms wrapping around the man's torso and pulling him away. Carla scrambled on the floor, coughing and gasping for air. It was a scene of chaos, the two security officers finally jumped into action, helping Kirk restrain the man. He was still shouting at the top of his voice, reeling off a string of expletives directed at Carla.
"That's enough!" Kirk shouted. All the commotion had brought McCoy to his office door, the scene that greeted him made his eyes widen in horror. His vision was filled with only Carla, he darted towards her, not knowing or even caring what was going on, only that she was hurt.
Thanks guys! Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about the latest chapter/story as a whole. LLAP ;-) XOXO