On the Bridge, Hag and Blackstone were arguing. "I tell you that ship means to take us." Stephen Blackstone said, his voice calm but insistent. McCoy glanced at Kirk, worriedly. It certainly looked as if Blackstone were right. Kirk was assessing the situation with his customary sang-froid. Weston was being characteristically indecisive,
"We don't know their intentions yet. Surely it would be best not to overreact."
"They may be about to make their intentions known." Nancy Weston said, suddenly, with an anxious look at her husband. "A communication is coming through." There was a sudden hush on the bridge as everyone waited expectantly. Then, a burst of static and the Aurora's small viewscreen flickered on and off before settling and revealing the image of a male, humanoid face. For a few seconds there was visual contact only as the man mouthed silent words from the screen, but there was no mistaking his meaning.
"He's giving us a warning. Nancy, what's he saying? We need audio, now!" Weston bellowed, panic-stricken. Nancy fumbled with the controls.
"What if he's after us?" McCoy said lowering his voice for only Kirk to hear, but Blackstone looked across at him with interest, causing McCoy a moment's unease, before he dismissed the look as coincidence. Kirk pulled McCoy with him out of the alien captain's range of sight. The man looking at them from the Shadow's bridge was human. He did not appear to be wearing a uniform, but it was hard to tell given that only his head and shoulders were visible on the Aurora's diminutive screen. Likewise, it was impossible to tell if others were present on his bridge.
"Nancy!" barked Weston again.
"I'm doing my best." Nancy said, and at that second, the Shadow captain's voice boomed out loud and clear, "…have five minutes to comply with our request, otherwise we will have no choice but to disarm you."
Kirk took a step forward, careful to remain out of the enemy's range of vision and grabbed Weston's arm. "Talk to him." It was not a request, not a command; Kirk had managed to pitch it somewhere between the two. Weston nodded.
"Tell him you've just established audio." Kirk said authoritatively, addressing his counterpart. Weston obeyed.
"Part of your message was not received. Please repeat." The Shadow captain stared at Weston disbelievingly. "Four minutes." He said. Kirk prompted Weston.
"Ask him what he wants." Weston repeated for the alien to hear.
No explanation was forthcoming. The viewscreen went dark, all communication ceased.
"Roger, the viewscreen!" Nancy pointing at the blank screen.
"What now?" Weston asked.
"We've either run out of time – or he's just trying to scare us." Kirk answered. calmly.
He looked around him, as he had done many times on the Bridge of the Enterprise, his eyes settling briefly on Stephen Blackstone's young face with a flicker of disappointment. McCoy understood instantly. The Aurora's crew was no match for the Enterprise's and Blackstone no substitute for Spock.
"How do you propose to stop them, Hopkirk? The Aurora's a cargo ship." Weston said, edgily. He was looking directly at Kirk, ready to defer all decisions to him, it seemed. Kirk glanced at Bones. The medic's expression was one that Jim had seen a hundred times or more from every single member of his bridge crew – quiet confidence in Kirk's ability to command, to find a solution. Kirk flashed his CMO a look of gratitude, brushed his hand over the top of his head and turned on his heel, ready to assume command.
"There's no way we can match him in firepower, so here's what we're going to do." He said, commanding the immediate attention of everyone on the bridge. "When the Shadow's captain resumes visual contact, I want you, Weston, to invite him to dock alongside the Aurora. Tell him that you will surrender your cargo to him immediately as long as he guarantees the safety of the Aurora and its crew." A silence followed his words. Kirk looked Weston straight in the eye and said, "I know what you've got hidden in the hold, mister, so don't even bother saying they won't be interested in engine parts."
Weston nodded. Blackstone took a step towards Kirk,
"May I point out that by inviting the Shadow captain aboaed this ship, you may be sanctioning its destruction." He said, his tone neutral.
"I'm ready to take my chances." Kirk said. Blackstone sighed. He moved to stand beside Kirk and lowered his voice,
"It is not what you have discovered in the hold, whatever that is, that they seek." He said, quietly, meeting Kirk's astonished eye. "They are bounty hunters. They're after me. They must have worked out I was aboard the Aurora."
It was all too much for Weston. "Would someone like to explain what's going on aboard my ship." He exploded, "Who are you, really?" He asked, looking from one to the other of his passengers.
"Later!" Kirk snapped.
"There is a good chance that the Shadow Captain is unaware of your presence aboard, Mr Hopirk." Blackstone said, "We should use that to our advantage."
Kirk nodded, already formulating a plan. To the crew, he said,
"When the Shadow's crew boards, McKay and I will be waiting for them in the cargo hold. If it's Stephen they are after, you'll have to tell them you're detaining him there. Their vessel is roughly the size of the Aurora – the crew probably numbers four or five. They'll need to leave at least one crewmember aboard their own ship." Kirk sounded confident, cocky almost. Put like that, it sounded as though they did not have too much of a problem – just a messy distraction to take care of before they could continue on their true mission to Skara. Listening to him, McCoy was convinced that it could be done with minimum time wasted. God knows, they had lost enough time already.
Weston seemed less than convinced, "It'll never work." He moaned. "How can you be sure there are so few of them? And they must know what they're about. We aren't trained fighters." Kirk rolled his eyes. The man's negativity was staggering. Hag, who had been silent throughout the whole exchange, protested, "I am an Andorian, trained in all aspects of war," he stated, daring anyone to challenge him. Blackstone added,
"I have weapons concealed in my cabin."
"Hopkirk!" Nancy Weston drew Kirk's attention to the screen, "They're re-establishing visual contact." The Shadow captain's face was swimming into view on the screen. Kirk and McCoy ducked out of sight. "Tell him you agree to his terms, whatever they are. Invite him to board. Tell him you'll be unarmed." Kirk hissed.
"Three minutes." The pirate captain growled, as though no interruption had occurred.
"Alright." Weston said, "What do you want?"
"We want your passenger, Stephen Blackstone. You are not in a position to negotiate. Prepare to be boarded." The communication ceased abruptly.
"The Shadow is preparing to dock alongside us." Hag said. Weston shrugged. There was a tense pause as they waited for the pirate ship to draw alongside the Aurora and attach itself to her like a malevolent twin.
"Where is Blackstone?" the Shadow's captain asked as he stepped between the two ships that were now effectively one, joined at their sides, hanging still in space and waiting. He was flanked by two guards on either side, armed with familiar-looking weapons. From his concealed vantage point, Kirk noted that two of the guards were Orions, the leader, now that they could see him clearly, was human. The other two were Terran, one male, one female, as far as he could tell, but there were so many like races in the galaxy it was impossible to be sure where they hailed from. Weston would need to be careful – the muscle bound Orions were not known for their sweet nature. He hoped that Weston and the others would follow his orders.
"He's in the hold." Weston answered, sounding nervous. "May I introduce myself. Roger Weston, captain of this fine vessel, and this is my wife, Nancy."
"Leyton." The Shadow's captain answered, laconically, but he gave Nancy a gracious smile.
McCoy, Hag and Blackstone would be waiting for them in the hold, carefully concealed. Kirk had needed to see what they were up against. Quiet as a cat, he headed down another corridor that would lead him to the hull of the ship ahead of the rest.
McCoy, Blackstone and Hag looked relieved to see him. "So far so good." Kirk said softly, then quickly explained how many opponents they faced. "They're armed with disrupters." He cautioned.
McCoy glanced uncomfortably at his phaser and set it to stun. Often uneasy with a weapon in his hand, the medic particularly disliked the effects of the disrupter - even set to stun, it could cause substantial pain and lasting damage. Not that he baulked at using force when it was necessary – he was no soldier but he knew that he would act or react with necessary might when the situation called for it. And, he trusted Jim. Force was always a last resort with this man, when negotiation and reason had failed or were not appropriate, and Jim had an uncanny way of knowing when that point had been reached.
As if sensing his discomfort, Kirk flashed Bones a reassuring smile. Footsteps sounded in the narrow corridor leading to the hold. Weston walked in first followed by Leyton and the others. Leyton's crew entered, two in front of their leader, two behind, the ones in front making a sweep of the immediate area while the other two kept their weapons trained on the Westons. It would be immediately obvious that the hold had many hiding places, the rows of sheathed crates and bulk boxes creating narrow alleys and shadowy corners. Suspicion drenched the atmosphere as Leyton and his guards scanned the space.
"Where is he?" Leyton asked, clearly on his guard.
"Over here!" Kirk yelled, throwing a spanner across the floor. As it landed and spiralled noisily across the floor, a nervous Orion blasted it with disruptor fire. It was the oldest trick in the book, but it worked. The distraction it created, allowed Kirk to fire a responding blast at the Orion, scoring a direct hit on his victim's chest. McCoy capitalised on the momentary chaos, firing a blast from his phaser, hitting the other Orion squarely on the leg – the big Orion crumpled but recovered sufficiently to raise his weapon again. McCoy cursed soundlessly, "Constitution of a damned ox!"
In the chaos, the Westons leapt for cover. Kirk, moving stealthily between the boxes, tossed each of them a weapon and they panned out, using the crates for cover. The wounded Orion covered the three remaining Shadows as they too dived for cover. McCoy felt a pang of guilt as he fired another shot at the Orion's chest, hoping that that ox-like constitution would help him to recover from a second blast.
For a time they played cat and mouse amongst the crates, and the confined space of the hold resounded with the deafening zing of phaser and disruptor fire. McCoy watched with interest as Blackstone crept soundlessly up behind one of the Terran women and disabled her using what looked for all the world like the Vulcan neck pinch. Now where in the devil's name had he learned that trick?
Two left. The female made a fatal mistake as she stepped between two crates unaware that Blackstone had taken out her cover. Weston aimed his weapon and McCoy watched in horror as the woman disappeared in a bright flash of disruptor fire. "Bastard!" he yelled, momentarily forgetting his own safety. "You were ordered to set your weapon to stun." Weston was staring down at the unfamiliar weapon, dismayed; clearly his incompetence knew no bounds. There was a pause, followed by the sound of the Shadow captain's weapon hitting the floor. He stepped into the open, his hands clasped behind his head in a universal gesture of surrender.
"Put your weapon down, mister." Kirk commanded Weston who was still staring at the disrupter, pointing it dangerously in front of him. Like McCoy, Kirk was furious at Weston's action. Weston glared at Kirk but lowered his disruptor. Blackstone and Hag were by now restraining Leyton by binding his hands.
"Who sent you?" Kirk asked, roughly.
"Jim." McCoy interrupted, approaching Leyton.
"Not now, Bones," Kirk said,
"Wait. The dead woman – I think she meant something to him." McCoy said, approaching Leyton. Now how in the hell did McCoy know that, Kirk wondered? He looked at the Shadow's captain and saw for himself how Leyton was – a broken man, his eyes fixed on the empty space where the woman had been. He did not care about his bounty now.
"I'm sorry for your loss." Kirk began, and, truthfully he took no joy in the woman's death, "But the truth is, you were ready to take this ship by force. And you were prepared to take one of its crewmembers, for what purpose, we still do not know. You've got some explaining to do, mister." Turning to Weston he said, "You have a secure storage room that appears to be empty. We'll use it as a holding area for our prisoners until they're ready to talk. Count yourself lucky that I'm not throwing you in there as well." He turned to Blackstone, "Mr Blackstone, you have some explaining to do."
Kirk waited until he, McCoy and Blackstone were in the relative privacy of the cramped quarters that he and Bones shared, before introducing himself and the doctor.
"I'm Captain James T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. This is my Chief Medical Officer, Dr Leonard McCoy." To his surprise, the young man's features settled into a satisfied smile.
"So, I heard correctly." He said. McCoy looked at Blackstone, remembering his slip on the Bridge.
"We're not the only ones with a secret to conceal." Kirk said. Blackstone was no longer smiling and something about the composure in his face reminded Kirk of another he knew. He took a step closer to Blackstone and pushed back the hair covering his left ear, which he touched, feeling the lifelike texture of an expert prosthetic.
"When did you guess?" Blackstone asked.
"The mind-meld, the nerve pinch," Kirk said, glancing at McCoy, "For a human, you seem to know a lot about Vulcan ways."
"About the mind-meld," McCoy said, "You pretended you didn't know what you were doing, but I think you gave Nyreea comfort in her last moments. Only someone trained in Vulcan telepathic techniques could do that. Your clumsiness over initiating the contact was faked, wasn't it?" Blackstone gave a faint nod.
"I realised she was going to die. When I touched her, I could sense her panic – I helped her to accept what was happening to her, that was all."
"That was a great deal." McCoy commented, quietly.
"Why the pretence?" Kirk asked, "Just what kind of a Vulcan are you?" Blackstone hesitated. "Not a very good one." He answered, wryly.
"I was born on Vulcan and lived there for the first fifteen years of my life. Then, my parents, who were both scientists, were assigned to a project on Ravik V. I was supposed to stay on Vulcan with my grandparents, continue with my Vulcan training. I travelled to Ravik with my parents for a short vacation – I was to return to Vulcan as soon as a place on a ship was available, but before that could happen I contracted Rigellian fever and was confined for six months. I spent another six months recuperating. Then, just as I was judged well enough to return to Vulcan…"
"Ravik was destroyed." Kirk said, grimly. Blackstone nodded.
"I survived. My parents perished. It was several years before I returned to Vulcan. By then, I had learned…other ways."
Kirk and McCoy exchanged glances. They had both heard stories about what the survivors on Ravik had lived through before their rescuers came.
"My grandfather came for me when he discovered that I had survived. I resumed my life on Vulcan, worked hard at the disciplines and my studies. I earned a place at the Vulcan science academy but at the last moment I turned it down."
"You wanted to know why your parents had to die." Kirk said, calmly.
"I became obsessed with finding out the truth about the strike on Ravik, yes."
"Son, that's one of the great mysteries of the galaxy." Said McCoy, gently.
"I believe that the answer lies on Skara." Blackstone replied.
"Skara!" Kirk could not conceal his surprise.
"I've been following hints – rumours picked up in bars, or trading posts or ships like the Aurora. I'm not alone in seeking the truth about Ravik. Two others, a Klingon and a Terran pursue it also. We were to have met on Skara. I believe that they may have vital information."
"Kort and Hunter?" Kirk asked.
"Yes, how did you know?"
"Both were involved in an attack on a Federation science vessel – the Curie – it has recently come to light that Kort and Hunter survived this incident also and we have reason to believe that they found their way to Skara."
Kirk looked at Blackstone, "Did you know these men during your time on Ravik?" A shadow descended over Blackstone's features.
"You have to understand what conditions were like on Ravik – an entire planet torn apart, thousands dead. A whole year before help came. Yes, I knew Kort and Hunter. Unlike many, they did not lose their humanity amidst the chaos and insanity that overtook many of the survivors. Captain Kirk, if you think that Kort and Hunter had anything to do with the Curie's destruction, you are wrong."
"A Klingon and a human working together? It sounds hardly possible,"
"They became friends, no something more - like brothers, but that too is inexact. There is a Vulcan word that describes their relationship - Thy'la. Are you familiar with this term?" For a moment Kirk looked stunned, as though he'd been struck a blow. McCoy laid a hand on his captain's shoulder, "He is familiar with the term," he said, quietly. Blackstone regarded both men with slight puzzlement.
"You must allow me to come to Skara with you."
"Jim?" Mcoy said, questioningly. Kirk sighed again and looked at Blackstone askance, his head lowered, the faintest of smiles playing at his lips. He felt outnumbered. And, he trusted McCoy's judgement. The doctor had evidently taken a shine to the young Vulcan.
"Your name isn't Stephen Blackstone. What is it?"
"My name is Sevak, but please use my alias. Kirk nodded.
"May I ask what it is you seek on Skara?" Blackstone asked.
"My First Officer was stranded on Skara after an ion storm. We're hoping to rescue him." Blackstone looked surprised,
"Your First Officer aboard the Enterprise is a Vulcan?"
"That's correct." Kirk answered. "Mr Spock is the Enterprise's First Officer and Science Officer. He is also…" Kirk paused, looking at McCoy who nodded at him encouragingly, "Spock is also our friend."