Startrekgirl.m made a good point about the action of this story; don't worry, this chapter will start to get there. Moreover, she was very nice about and I appreciate that. Next chapter I will thank everyone who has reviewed so if you want to get your name listed, please review!

Next, the people you don't recognize in Kirk's list are actual people from Star Trek. Yeoman Tina Lawton: "Charlie X"; Lieutenant David Bailey: "The Corbomite Maneuver"; Lieutenant Spinelli: "Space Seed"; Lieutenant Kevin Riley: "The Naked Time", "Conscience of the King."

Also, Sulu's proverb I took to mean 'be on your guard.' FYI, this is going to be long. I'm combining two chapters to get to the action sooner. There is a way to see who was chosen for the Hunger Games, if you can find it…

"I'm so sorry, Cap'n. I was goin' te knock. These blasted doors donna open right!"
"That's quite alright," Kirk said. Scotty was horrified. They were all going to need their wits about them to get out of this. He was also horrified about the lack of sliding doors on this planet. Honestly.

"Why were you in suck a rush that you forgot the simple mechanism of opening a door, Mr. Scott?" asked Spock.

"Wha-? Oh! Cap'n! We been workin' with some o' the people from District Three. I caught one o' the smaller ones cuttin' wires and such. I asked 'im what he was doin' and he said he was under orders from President Flint te keep us here."
"And… just like that he told you?" Captain Kirk was incredulous.

"Well, this was aftair I told him not te mess with the Entairprise."
"Told?"
"Well…"

"Irrelevant. Was there anything else he told you, coerced or otherwise?" Spock interrupted.

"Aye! The lad said he thought President Flint was gonna do somethin' bad. He said he dunno what but those Games last year weren't vairy int'restin'! He was goin' te say somethin' else but a chunk o' metal dropped on his head. The poor lad's dead now," Scotty said, worrying. He wasn't normally a man to sit and worry; he liked to do something instead. But the way that bit of metal just dropped, well, Scotty hadn't seen the like of it. It was downright odd.

"Thank you Scotty," Kirk said, deep in his own thoughts.

"Captain, I will reiterate. Though the falling metal was a coincidence, the information Mr. Scott has given us further supports my hypothesis. At the least, we must remove all personnel from the Capitol until more information on President Flint's motives is available," Spock stated firmly.

Kirk turned to face him and nodded.

"Yes, you might be right Spock. I-" Scotty turned to look at the panel on the wall that had interrupted the captain.

"James T. Kirk, please report to my office." It was President Flint's lulling voice. It was not a request.

"Oh, and come alone."
0o0o

Minutes later, Captain Kirk was standing in front of President Flint's polished cherry desk. She had not offered him a chair. It was better to needle your opponents when they stood for awhile than to have them sit, and make them your equal.

"Good day Captain. Are the odds in your favor?" President Flint questioned.

After a moment's hesitation, the captain replied, "I don't know yet."
President Flint pulled a paper in front of her and let Captain Kirk read it upside down.

Captain James T. Kirk- 50 slips

*Mr. Spock- 40 slips

*Doctor Leonard McCoy- 30 slips

*Mr. Montgomery Scott- 30 slips

*Lieutenant Nyota Uhura- 20 slips

Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu- 20 slips

*Ensign Pavel Chekov- 10 slips

Yeoman Janice Rand- 10 slips

And so the list went on until it ended with

*Doctor Helen Noel- 2 slips

"Not all your crewmembers are on here Captain, just the important ones. If we loaded up with too many nobodies, the odds of picking someone important would decrease." President Flint stood up, her good eye as hard and glinting as amethyst, and the other just as dark as ever.

"President Flint, I don't know what you're talking about. What are these… slips? What do they mean?" Captain Kirk asked, beginning to get angry. President did not answer, keeping the captain in suspense.

"Doctor McCoy and Mr. Spock are good friends of yours, are they not?" inquired Jade Flint. This time Kirk did not answer.

"It would be a shame if something happened to them, wouldn't it." She said it as a statement, letting it soak in. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kirk's attention rest fully on her. Inside, Flint was smirking, allowing herself to take joy in the captain's worry for a moment. She knew it wouldn't show on her face; nothing ever did unless she wanted it to.

"Well right now, they, and some others, are being held hostage. If you want to see them again, gather the people who are not starred and lead them to the square by 10 o'clock tomorrow. Understand?"
Kirk nodded slowly.

"What do the stars mean?" he asked, stalling.

"Why Captain, they're the ones we already have."
0o0o

The next day, Kirk hurried along the hallway. Spock, Bones, Uhura, Chekov, Scotty, Lawton, Bailey, Spinelli, Helen, he thought. Without them, even if the ship were in working order, Kirk couldn't fly the Enterprise. President Flint had successfully picked the people he couldn't do without, and added some others for number's sake. But was he putting all the people not starred on that list at risk by taking them to the square? Whatever Flint wanted to do, if she was resorting to hostages, wasn't good. Kirk paused before knocking on Sulu's door. He had to help his friends. There was too much to lose if he didn't.

"Captain?" Sulu's gentle voice accompanied the lieutenant opening the door. Kirk took a deep breath.

"Lieutenant, I need you to report to the foyer of the mansion immediately. Wait there until I come." Sulu's eyebrows drew together but he agreed.

"Yes sir." The lieutenant began to walk away but halted and turned towards Kirk.

"Captain, is everything…" Sulu let it trail off. Kirk had a sudden flash of inspiration. Sulu knew.

"Go to the foyer please Lieutenant," Kirk said softly. Lieutenant Sulu nodded and whispered something Kirk barely caught.

"Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm, Captain."

0o0o

Kirk accompanied Lieutenant Riley, the last on his list, to the reception area. He had a moment of doubt. There were friends of his here too. Sulu, Yeoman Rand, Nurse Chapel… Kirk ripped his eyes from searching the crowd to address them all.

"Friends, last night Mr. Spock, Doctor McCoy, Mr. Scott, Lieutenant Uhura, Ensign Chekov, Yeoman Lawton, Lieutenant Bailey, Lieutenant Spinelli, and Doctor Noel were all taken hostage. My instructions were to gather you all here and go to the square in the middle of the Capitol. I do not know what waits for us there but I do know that we must go of our own free will. That is the only way to show them that we won't play their games. They want to scare us, intimidate us," the words were coming in a rush now, "but we won't let them! We will go because we want to. If anyone wants to stay behind, I won't stop you." No one moved and Kirk's heart swelled with pride.

"Let's go."

0o0o

The crowd of blue, yellow, and red marched steadily to the Capitol Square. Despite interdepartmental laser tag wars and all the pranks and tricks that naturally happened between departments, they all belonged on the Enterprise. And God help anyone who was going to get in their way to rescue their friends.

Kirk stopped once they came upon a grid with signs hanging from each roped off square.

Women, 60+ said the sign nearest Kirk. The sea behind him began to filter into their squares. The captain stepped into the square next to Spock.

"Captain," he said in greeting.

"Spock." Spock was standing in a square labeled Other, Male, 40-50. Other. Kirk's fury boiled at the word.

"Hem, hem, if we'll get started," said a woman with black hair in a pixie cut.

"My name is Kerra Tynan. I am the escort for District Two. Today we will be having the Capitol's first real, live Reaping! Isn't it excellent?" Kirk's blood turned into some sort of lead and ice mixture as the bloodthirsty crowd surrounding them cheered. He looked at Spock, who was staring straight ahead, no emotion on his face. Only Kirk or the CMO could have noticed Spock's especially rigid posture.

"Now I'll hand the microphone to your one and only President Flint." The crowd clapped wildly as the president walked up to the podium.

"As you all know, before the land of Panem, we lived in a way much different from this. There were wars and cruel, senseless murders. Then there came great floods and wildfires and earthquakes. Citizens believed the world was ending and many died. In the aftermath, people fought for food and water. A drought had fallen over the land but out of the destruction, the Capitol rose and brought reason to the surrounding land. Not everyone was grateful."

"The districts rose to overthrow the Capitol. They were not successful. Twelve districts were defeated and the thirteenth made a deal. They would live underground and not stir up trouble and the Capitol leave them alone. This was a mistake on the part of the weak president. District Thirteen rose up and gathered the other districts into the Mockingjay Rebellion. They succeeded for a while. My mother led a third rebellion and now we have an improved government. We have kept the tradition of the Hunger Games as a reminder that the Capitol will always triumph. It is a both a time for repentance and a time for thanks." Kerra came back on.

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor. Ladies first? Excellent!" You could hear a pin drop, thought Kirk wildly. Sometimes strange thoughts entered one's brain in stressful times.

Kerra read the name out loud. It wasn't Yeoman Rand, it wasn't Doctor Noel, it was…