The three expedition men stood in the transporter room, suited up and ready to go. To any random outsider, they might look like overgrown super heroes; sucked into skin tight suits, backpacks strapped over their shoulders, prepared for any danger. The suits were flame retardant, and could withstand most extreme weather while keeping the wearer's body temperature at a comfortable degree for their surroundings.

Kirk groaned, extending his arm and flexing a glove covered hand. "I understand they have to be comfortable and adaptable to your body. But did they have to be this tight?" He complained, grabbing a piece of the latex like fabric and stretching it. It snapped back to his arm with a resounding pop! which sounded like it hurt.

"And did they have to be green? Give me a cape and I'll practically be a superhero!" To his right, Hikaru Sulu laughed at the comment. To his left, Spock barely looked up from his handheld device.

"They are green because we need camouflage, Jim." He said stiffly, too focused on scanning his right arm to notice. Apparently he was doing his own medical diagnostics test, even though Bones had already been through one.

"I get that, pointy. It was rhetorical," Kirk snapped, still smirking as he nudged the uptight Vulcan in the arm. Sulu, of course, was finding it hard not to burst out laughing. He always thought it funny when the Captain and his right hand bickered with each other. However, he could only find amusement in something for so long. Every time he took a break to think, his mind was stuck on Pavel. He had gotten no sleep recently, spending the nights tossing and turning in thought, instead. How could he have just stood there and let them berate Pavel, just for being young? The Captain had tried to be reasonable, but Spock had been downright rude. Of course, it wasn't his fault- he was being logical. Something told Sulu that Pavel took it in a different way, however. He felt targeted and hurt by their words, and his best friend just sat there, pretending it wasn't that bad. Now look at the mess they were in.

Honestly, Hikaru had considered following Pavel out of the bridge when he had stormed away after Kirk and Spock left, but something had held him back. He had assumed that Pavel would cheerfully bounce back like he always did, although it was obvious that he was far much more hurt than usual. Part of him had urged himself to comfort his friend when he looked so broken, but Sulu had talked himself out of it, using his strong sense of duty as an excuse to stay out of it. He needed to remain at the bridge, he didn't really trust any ensigns outside of Pavel and a few select others. Chekov would be back, he had assured himself. He just needed time to brood a little, and the he would be fine. But Pavel had not been fine, and Hikaru, who was supposed to be the kid's best friend, hadn't seen it. What did that say about him?

Seeing Pavel in the condition he been in during Harewood's last hail was something he didn't know if he was ready to face again. Chekov was never in the line of fire like Kirk and Spock were, like Sulu himself was on occasion. So he wasn't at all accustomed to seeing the boy with bruises like the ones he had. Pavel had looked so worn down and weary, as though he was getting as much rest as Hikaru was. That scared the Asian man more than anything else, how very close to broken the kid seemed. None of them knew what was really going on down there, and as much as Hikaru wasn't sure if he wanted to find out, he knew they had to face it for Pavel's sake.

"Oi! Captain Kirk! Scotty here!" Montgomery's voice blared into Sulu's thoughts, coming from the ship communication system.

"Yeah, I can tell, Scotty. What is it?" Kirk replied with the utmost patience for Scotty and his excitement, just another quality Sulu wish he had himself. The hyper man sometimes got under his skin, and though he managed not to show it, that accent was much more annoying than Pavel's was. A Russian accent Hikaru could tolerate-but a rough Scottish one? Not so much.

"Dr. McCoy found somethin' in the library that you're going to want to hear!" the engineer reported quickly. The landing party men glanced at each other, all of them seeming to detect the urgency in Scotty's words.

"Bones? What is it?" Kirk asked of his chief medical officer, whom they could all hear in the background ordering Scotty to "give him the dang thing before he got hypoed in the neck."

"I was doing some medical research, Jim." Bones' voice eventually came crackling over the intercom, blunt as always. If there was one thing to be appreciated by the gruff man, it was the fact that he could always get straight to the point. "Did you know that Thomas Harewood is half Vulcan?"

"What? You're joking!" the captain exclaimed, shocked. He glanced towards Spock, who of course had a single eyebrow raised in fascination. "Could you tell?" He asked his equally half-Vulcan friend.

"No, Captain, I'm afraid this is new information to me. Although upon reflection, it does appear as though many of Mr. Harewoods' mannerisms do reflect that of my culture," Spock mused.

"Like what?" Kirk implored, looking thoroughly confused. Sulu was honestly still working out the situation himself. This was very sudden information, like nothing he would ever have suspected. But at the moment, it seemed trivial. Why would Harewood's species have anything to do with the capture of Pavel? And, the more pressing question, how could it help him?

"Not important right now, Jim! The point is, I think we might have found a motive!" Bones snapped, obviously growing tired of the chit-chat. "If he's part Vulcan, that means some Vulcan DNA is in his daughter's blood. I'm not sure how much, but I think it might explain why she's dying."

"Bones, what are you talking about?" Jim sighed, seeming flustered. Sulu vaguely remembered something about Harewood's daughter being ill, and part of that being the reason why he bombed Section 31 in London, but he felt as lost as his captain looked. As much as Starfleet attempted to keep them updated, they honestly didn't have time to keep track of any non-Federation news.

"Don't you remember? His daughter Lucille is being treated in the Royal Children's Hospital."

"Bones, this is your field, not mine. I'm sorry, but I don't have time for this."

"Damnit Jim, this is important." Automatically, the captain rolled his eyes. Typically, what Bones described as essential ended up being boring to him. Though it was always useful information, he could takes years to explain it all, and after awhile, he would have to ask for it to be put into layman's terms.

"Officer McCoy, while we understand your reasoning, we find it pertinent to beam down to the surface as soon as possible." Spock interjected, sounding obviously bored by the interaction. "We will have time to collect more information on our adversary once we have returned with our navigator."

"And I find it pertinent that you get a better haircut, Commander, but this isn't about us. I believe I was addressing the Captain." Snarky as ever, Bones was able to come up with a retort in seconds. Jim never could fully figure out why his chief medical officer and second in command were constantly at a battle of wits. Perhaps it was that they felt they were the smartest on the ship, and had trouble with accepting the fact that they were equally matched. Something told Kirk that Bones just liked getting under Spock's skin, for some reason.

"Gentlemen, this is hardly the time." Kirk sighed, frustrated beyond measure. His patience was already running thin, and the stressful situation wasn't doing anything to help. With every second, Pavel could be closer to death, the Enterprise could be closer to destruction, and the crew would have no clue what to do to prevent any imminent danger.

"No, Jim, you're going to want to see this."

"Bones, this isn't a game. I - we - need to beam down before it's too late. We're in a very precarious situation and -" he was about to come up with another excuse when the urgency in Bones' voice finally hit home. He realized the panic and fascination he was hearing in his friend's voice was possibly very important. Though he had no clue what Lucille Harewood had to do with anything, he was sure the half Vulcan coincidence was more than just a random the Captain was finally realizing the error in not listening to his medical officer, Bones' voice was angrily blarring through the speakers of the device. "Jim, you infant, stay right there. I swear, don't move. I am not going to play hide and seek with you. Just wait until I explain it, trust me - you're actually going to want to see this."

"Captain, I think he's right," Sulu chimed in. He could understand where Kirk was coming from-he didn't want to waste another moment when it came to getting Pavel back, but McCoy's insistence had to mean something, didn't it? The doctor wasn't an unpractical man, definitely not one to waste time. And Chekov seemed to be one of the people he could tolerate most on the Enterprise. In Sulu's mind, it made no sense for Dr. McCoy to want to delay the mission if it wasn't for something of the utmost importance, and he had a gut feeling that was telling him to stay and listen, if only for a little bit longer.
_

Running hurriedly through tight ships corridors hadn't been on Bones' list of things to do that day. If only they could transport people from one room to the next with the beaming technology! However, since it benefitted the mission, he would do anything for the Captain - even though he was getting on his nerves today. That was to be expected, however. If Bones was to be forced to think logically - even medically - he would come to the conclusion that the added stress of a missing crew member, plus anxiety over being beamed down to a hostile planet had to be difficult on a person's nerves, let alone their temper.

Still, though, it was aggravating to try and get the kid to listen to him. Bones had spent the better part of the last half hour in the library, trying to dig up anything and everything he could find about Thomas Harewood. Why the scarred man would want his identity to be known, McCoy couldn't say. But he had used the new information to his advantage, and what he had found blew him out of the water. It could provide a whole new outlook on Harewood's character-what he was doing on the planet, what he wanted... and why he had Pavel. It could give Thomas a motive, and Bones knew from old reruns of cop shows he had seen that the motive could sometimes be the most valuable piece of information you could have. Jim, however, just didn't seem to get that.

Bones could clearly see where the captain was coming from. Obviously he would want to get to Chekov as soon as possible, and McCoy had no desire to stop him from doing so. But what he found could possibly help them somehow, and at this point he knew they could use any help they could get. Of course, it was just like Jim to try and decline any assistance from him or anyone else, that was just how he was. But this time Bones was sure that he knew best, and Kirk was just going to have to suck it up and listen to him. So although he was not a man built for tearing through hallways and dodging frustrating slow crewmembers, he found him doing so if only to make sure his friends didn't go down there without as much knowledge they could get.
The distance from the library to the transporter room was further than he would have liked-it gave Jim too much time to completely disregard his advice and beam down to the planet anyway. Bones spent the entire duration of his run pleading in his mind with the younger man to stay where he was, to refrain from yet another act of idiocy. Somehow, Kirk must have heard him, for he was still in the transporter room with Spock and Sulu when Bones burst in, gasping and clutching a PADD tightly in his hand.

"Took you long enough, old man," Jim remarked, his words sounding like a joke but lacking his usual snide tone. His face was drawn, and he was tapping his foot impatiently. Bones knew Jim was annoyed with him, but at the moment, he couldn't have cared less.

"Yeah, well, I'd like to see you do better," Bones spat back, in no mood to play games. "Now take a look at this." He shoved the PADD into Jim's hands, and the man began to scroll through it with much less interest than usual.

"What am I supposed to be looking at, Bones?" he asked dryly, obviously beginning to question McCoy's reasons behind making them late. The doctor stood beside his captain, pointing out the parts of interest which Jim was failing to see.

"These are Thomas Harewood's records from the London Bridge Hospital from about 20 years ago. Apparently he was just going in for some plastic surgery on his ears, and according to protocol, they had to do a full medical analysis before putting him under. His file has everything about him here: height, weight, and species. Turns out Harewood is half-human, half-Vulcan, just like our hobgoblin over there," He gestured towards Spock, who merely nodded his understanding.

"Yeah, we know that. It's weird. So what?" Jim sighed, still not seeming to grasp the point rolled his eyes, wondering how one man could manage to be so difficult to deal with.

"So you remember that sick daughter he's got? She has Vulcan DNA in her, too. But guess who else's blood is in her?"

"Khan's." Spock suddenly spoke up, never having moved from his position on the transport pad. Now, he was slowly pacing forward, a thoughtful look to his dark eyes. "Doctor, I believe I may see the point you are trying to make here."

"Do you? Well that's perfect. If only we could get the Captain on the same page. You should try explaining it to him. Maybe he'll actually listen to you," Bones retorted bitterly, glaring at both Jim and Spock simultaneously. The tension in the room was obvious. Though Jim was being difficult, as usual, Bones understood the underlying reason. It seemed as though today, he was just looking for a fight, ready to go against the man who captured a crew member. It was probably making him go insane to have to stay and wait, not knowing what was going on down on the planet. As much as Bones hated to keep him from his task, he knew this was information worth hearing.

"Bones, I'm sorry. I'm listening. Go on," Jim insisted, weariness and a hint of frustration present in his voice. Apparently the idea of Spock delivering McCoy's news-in full medical terms, no doubt-was something Jim wanted to avoid, and Bones didn't blame him.

"If you do not mind, doctor, I will take it from here." Spock murmured, his lips drawn into a thin line as he slowly paced in thought. Bones thought he saw Jim rolling his eyes, and caught himself from returning the gesture. "You see, Captain, this has everything to do with race, now. Specifically, mine and yours." He paused, seeing the Captain begin to interrupt. Silencing him with a cold look, he continued with his explanation. "There has never been much need for Vulcans and humans to come to any medical crossroads together in the past. In relation, no one has ever found a reason for a test on Augments and their reaction to the Vulcan blood line."

"Now hold on, what are Augments?" Kirk managed to ask, a questioning look in his eyes. This was all a bit frustrating, to be kept so far out of the loop, and to be in such a tight time crunch.

"They are what you might call... enhanced forms of life. They are extremely intelligent. I hate to use the word, but I can only assume that they were programmed once to be hunters, killers. Capable of destroying any form of civilization. These Augments boil down to simple humans when it comes to species, but they are much more than what you would consider to be average."

He knew that the whole room had their eyes on him. Most were confused, wondering how they could have missed the existence of these people for so long. Others were beginning to understand as Spock continued. "They are practically immune to pain. Everything inside of them is strong. Down to their bones, their blood, their life has endurance, stamina - stability, even. They are a species that refuses to die out."

"So how come we haven't heard of them?" Sulu piped up, his brow crinkled in confusion.

"Because they have been frozen inside cryogenic chambers for years. You in fact have encountered them, Mr. Sulu- seventy three of them, to be exact. Only one of their kind has been recently reanimated, one we are all quite familiar with."

"Khan." Kirk's eyes suddenly lit up, the puzzle being put together. "Khan and his crew were Augments. But what does that have to do with Harewood? Or Vulcans?"

"If you will allow me to continue in my explanation, Captain, you will soon see. Now as you recall, Mr. Harewood's daughter Lucille had fallen critically ill shortly before the bombing of Section 31, an act which Mr. Harewood committed under the influence of Khan. He in return had claimed to be able to save his daughter by transfusing a quantity of his blood into her body. This means that his enhanced blood was mixed with Lucilles', which of course contained traces of Vulcan DNA passed down genetically from her father," Spock went on, his impartial tone making the subject sound even more serious than it already was. Bones found himself wishing he could just explain it himself-the way Spock was doing it felt like he was purposely stalling if only to keep them in suspense.

"Okay, so his daughter's got Khan's blood inside her. What happened? Did she get any better?" Kirk pressed him for details, clearly trying to speed up the explanation, something Bones was sure everyone else was grateful for.

"For a short period of time, yes. It seemed to everyone as though the Augment blood had cured Lucille, or at least drastically improved her condition. However, in recent months she has been rapidly decreasing in health, and doctors now have estimated that her life span will not last until the new year," Spock reported, and a silence fell over the group at the news. Although they all hated Thomas Harewood for what he had done to Pavel, the thought of his young daughter, the very person he was trying to save in the first place, dying in a cold hospital room saddened each of them to the core. It wasn't her fault her father was the man he was, and she did not deserve to be held accountable or in disregard for any of his actions.

Bones himself knew what it felt like to have a sick child: his daughter Joanna was diabetic, and in the early years of her life had spent many a day in the hospital undergoing several different forms of treatment. While they knew she would survive, it was still nerve-racking waiting for the tests to be done and to get news on her progress. He could only imagine what it would be like for a parent to be wondering whether or not their child would survive the week, abandoned by the one person they should be able to trust to help them through it. It was enough to send a stabbing sense of pity through his heart. He glanced at Jim quickly, catching the mournful look on his face, before turning his attention back to the first officer.

Spock himself looked unusually disturbed by his own words, but then the logical side of him may have been holding back the full extent of his emotion-Bones could never be sure with that man. The Vulcan took a deep breath before continuing.

"It is believed that the cause of Lucille's deterioration is linked to a clash of Augment and Vulcan blood inside of her. The Augment blood, as you should very well know, Captain, has positive, life-restoring qualities when combined with human blood, as well as in creatures such as Tribbles. However, it seems as though Augment blood does not have the same effect when combined with Vulcan DNA. In fact, it appears that it is the Vulcan blood inside of young Miss Harewood that is not allowing her recovery. Though she was showing signs of improvement at one point, we can only assume that the Vulcan part of her genetics sent antibodies to attack the Augment blood cells."

"So Lucille Harewood... isn't going to get better?" Sulu, always the caring man, sounded pained to say what they were all thinking. He couldn't imagine a little girl experiencing such torment. Here she was, dying in her hospital bed, only to begin to improve. After a month of happiness, possibly one that included her getting out of her bed, fated to be ruined by the supposed death of her father and sudden decline in her health.

"Not unless a cure is developed to treat her specific strand of cancer. The process is made even more difficult by the fact that she is one fourth Vulcan. It is... probable that she will not survive the year, perhaps not even the month," He said this with a sort of finality, as though he didn't want to continue on with this depressing part of the conversation. But as much as it saddened each of them, they knew it was reality, and they could not do anything to stop it from happening. The only thing they could stop was Harewood from hurting Pavel any longer, and Bones knew that was exactly what they intended to do. And in order to accomplish that, they needed to hear this information, whether they wanted to or not.

"So why does he have Pavel? What does our ship have to do with any of this?" Turning, the captain stared pointedly at their man of the hour. He was hoping that, against all odds, their chief medic would know something - anything - that could help them even more.

"Well that - I don't know." Bones' dark eyes were wide with sudden realization. Though his pieces of information were worthwhile... they did nothing to help the situation. With that crippling knowledge, he stepped away from the transport plate and sighed, running his fingers through his short cropped hair. He had honestly thought that this was going to make some sort of sense of their situation, but now that it had been vocally explained, he realized that it was nowhere near the help he thought it was going to be. Raw frustration filled him-after all his insistence that they hear this information first, they were no closer to finding the motive he had promised than they had started with. How could he have been so stupid? Kirk, Spock, and Sulu could have been down on the planet by now, they could have been saving Pavel by now...but they weren't, because Bones had held them back. What a great father figure to the kid he was.

"What do you mean, you don't know? You were the one who said how important this was!" Kirk pointed out, narrowing his eyes perhaps out of reflex. He was obviously angry-and Bones didn't blame him in the slightest.

"I was just going to explain the Vulcan and Augment blood situation in Harewood's daughter to you, I thought we could figure out something from it! Now that I'm hearing it, though…" he trailed off, a pang of shame passing through him.

"It's useless. It doesn't explain anything, Bones! It makes sense, but we can't use any of it, and now we've wasted valuable time!" Jim fumed, his face reddening slightly and his voice rising. Bones looked him square in the eye, itching to say some biting comment but knowing now was not the time or place. Sulu and Spock were no help, the lieutenant watching the scene with what looked like apprehension while the commander appeared lost in thought. Maybe he was making some sort of connection between Lucille's condition and her father's recent actions-Bones hoped if this was the case, he would voice whatever it was soon, to at least get Jim off his back.

"Captain!" Uhura's voice suddenly filled the room over their intercom system, sounding alert and urgent.

"What is it, Lieutenant?" Kirk turned his head to the ceiling, as he often did when talking to someone who was not in the room. He closed his eyes, the stress of the past three days finally showing signs of breakage upon his typically collected facade.

"We are back online, sir. All transmissions are up and running functionally."

Raising an eyebrow, Kirk frowned in confusion. "I was not aware that we were offline..." He mused, unaccustomed to being so out of the loop. Things were spiraling out of control so quickly that he could barely adjust to it all.

"There was a block on our technology recently. It just lifted a few minutes ago, actually - we are trying to figure out what happened... However, that's not the important part." In the moment of hesitation that Uhura took to gulp in air, the crew could hear her excitement and anticipation in her actions. Things were hopefully taking a turn - for the better or worse, they did not know. With all of the disappointing news of the day, every mind in the room was focused on wishing for an actual pleasant surprise.

"Captain," Uhura practically panted. "We are receiving another transmission from the planet."

Author's note:

Remind us never to upload from the iPad again. This was stressful and took many attempts. Speaking of stress - school has started again! Our updates will most likely become biweekly or monthly now. Contest winners will be announced when chapter eleven goes up. Feel free to submit more comments to us! We love to read them, with or without the contest going on.