"I can detect no life signs, Captain. Neither on the P'Jem nor on the Romulan scout," Spock said. Both ships stood peacefully in orbit of the equally peaceful looking class M planet, there were no signs of a fight, and no signs of a civilization on the planet.

"Life support is functioning?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Alright. Uhura, call Doctor McCoy to the transporter room. We're beaming over to the P'Jem. Mr. Spock, you're with me."

Kirk was on his way to the turbolift when he gave the order. He was concerned, but also somewhat excited. Once more the three of them would make up a landing party. Some of the things he enjoyed the most about his job as captain of the Enterprise were the adventures he had with the two men who had become his best friends. They were good at what they did, although sometimes it was dangerous and missions didn't always go as planned. However, so far it had all ended well. He only feared the day when it wouldn't, when one of them would lose his life, but on the other hand, he was an optimist. It will always end well.

"Captain, ...," Spock's voice held a warning tone.

Kirk turned, already in the turbolift to face Spock. "Yes?"

"I advise to leave Dr. McCoy on board the Enterprise."

Kirk looked at him in surprise. Spock entered the lift and continued talking after the doors had closed. "The doctor has not yet fully recovered from the attack on Meriah Five. He seems to be - stressed out. Him being with the landing party would risk his health as well as the successful outcome of our mission."

Kirk chewed his lower lip. He had only just convinced himself that Bones was alright, and now Spock was voicing his concerns? Spock isn't a psychologist, he is merely being overprotective, he decided, thinking about the story McCoy told him a few hours ago, about Spock wanting to discuss his dreams this morning. "Really, Spock, I think a little diversion is just the right therapy for our good doctor."

Spock bowed his head and didn't say anything further.

o0o

They materialised in the transporter room of the P'Jem. She was smaller than the Enterprise, so it did not take them long to arrive at the bridge. On their way there, they encountered nothing unusual.

The bridge was deserted. The automated distress call was still active. Kirk turned it off and then he went over to the captain's chair, looking for any sign of a fight, violence, damage, whatever, but he could find nothing.

"Jim!" McCoy stood at the helm console holding up a plate. There was a half-eaten donut on it. With pink glazing.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Didn't you say the crew of the P'Jem was mostly Vulcan?"

Kirk nodded walking over to McCoy and took a look at the plate. He would have laughed, if it hadn't been so strange.

"Well, I think their protocol is a bit lax, don't you? At least, I've never seen anyone eat pastry on the Enterprise's bridge before."

"The captain often drinks coffee, doctor. And maybe one of them was a diabetic and needed something to keep up his blood sugar." Spock didn't seem to be too surprised.

"Diabetic?" McCoy raised his eyebrow and looked at Spock as if he'd gone mad.

"Mr. Spock, let's listen to the last entries of their computer log!" Kirk needed to know what had happened here. Where was the crew?

"Yes, Captain." Spock was standing at one of the consoles, pushing buttons, trying to activate the computer log.

"The computer log contains no entries," the voice of the computer provided.

"What?" Kirk was confused. This was impossible, unless someone had deliberately deleted the log entries.

"The computer log is empty," Spock said.

"We understood, Spock. What Jim meant was: How is that possible?" McCoy was eyeing Spock now with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. Something wasn't right.

"Somebody must have deleted all entries," Spock concluded staring back at McCoy.

"But who? Or better, but why?"

"Is there a way to retrieve the lost entries, Mr. Spock?" Kirk was becoming impatient.

"I can try."

"You do that. Bones, let's take a look at their sickbay. Maybe there was some kind of medical emergency that their doctor recorded."
"If that wasn't deleted as well," McCoy mumbled, following Kirk off the bridge.

"Well?" Kirk asked the doctor on their way to the P'Jem's sickbay.

"Well, what?"

"There's something on your mind."

"Other than the mystery at hand? No."

"What do you make of it, then?"

"I don't know. I think he's maybe stressed out."

"What? You mean Spock?"

"Don't you think he's acting a bit, I don't know, off?"

"Funny that you say that. I was talking about the mystery of the P'Jem's missing crew."

"Right. I don't know enough facts, yet."

Kirk looked at his CMO in surprise. "You just sounded like Spock, there."

"I did not."

"You now, on the Enterprise, he voiced his concern that you were a little stressed out." Kirk didn't tell him that Spock wanted Bones to stay on the Enterprise, he'd just take offense.

"There you see that something isn't quite right."

They arrived at sickbay's doors. Kirk nodded to McCoy to stand behind. He had a strange feeling suddenly and wanted to be cautious. The doors opened with the normal "swoosh". Kirk saw the empty bio-beds, and relaxed just a bit. Then he heard Bones let out a gasp behind him, and out of the corner of his eye he saw him move past into sickbay, already kneeling down. That's when he looked at the floor. There were people lying there, obviously dead, but Bones was nonetheless going from one body to the next scanning them with his medical tricoder.

Bones could be an amazing optimist at times, Kirk thought. It was hopeless. Not only had the sensors of the Enterprise told them that there were no living beings on board, but from just one look at the bodies and the amount of blood - red blood - on the floor, he could tell, they were as dead as a person could be. They had been stabbed. Three, no, four of them. Two men and a woman. Humans, probably all humans that had been part of the otherwise Vulcan crew.

"What did you find, Bones?" Kirk saw the doctor frown at some readings on his medical tricorder.

Bones looked at him, with pain in his eyes. It made Kirk's breath hitch. He's seen so many people die, and these he didn't even know. How can it still get to him that hard?

"They're dead. And they died in the obvious way. But I have some readings that I need to analyse."

Kirk nodded, then stepped around the puddles of blood to sickbay's computer and pushed a button.

"The computer log contains no entries."

Kirk looked at McCoy, who looked up at that. "They must have deleted everything, before they left."

"Left to where?"

"The planet. Where else?"

Kirk took out his communicator. "Kirk to Spock."

"Spock here."

"Any luck with the computer log?"

"Negative, Captain."

"Well, we're getting back to the Enterprise. Meet us in the transporter room."

"Yes, Captain."

Bones had picked up the dead body of the nurse, and stood at sickbay's doors waiting for Kirk.

"You don't have to do that. We'll send a team over to retrieve the bodies," Kirk said. He felt a lump in his throat at the sight.

"I know, Jim. I want to do an autopsy, right away."

Kirk nodded. "You didn't know her, did you?"

McCoy snapped at him: "Why? Do you have to know people in order to feel sorry that they have been brutishly murdered?"

"Of course not." He lead the way back to the transporter room.

o0o

Spock awaited them. When he saw the doctor and the captain arrive, the doctor carrying a dead woman, he did not move a muscle.

When Kirk took out his communicator and ordered Scotty to beam them back, Spock spoke to McCoy under his breath:

"Leave the body here."

"Why?"

Before Spock could answer they already started to dematerialise.