Chapter 20: Gift

It was like Christmas for Kirk whenever the new shipment of agonizers arrived. His eyes would light up and he'd be the first in the transport or docking bay, whichever was being used, his hands tearing into the boxes to see the latest features and improvements.

"Look Sawbones!" the Captain said as he held a fresh one high in the air, as if in awe.

"Yes. I see it," McCoy said smirking.

"No you didn't," Kirk said in annoyance and extended it. "You couldn't have. See."

McCoy looked it over. He rarely looked at his own so he was left to compare it to the last time he had seen someone else's. From first glance, the only difference was a stripe around it and a warning that the voltage was higher. "Yeah. It's real pretty."

Kirk held it close like an infant. "It's more than pretty. It's gorgeous."

He proceeded in taking a handful of them out of the box and leaving the transport room.

"Leave some of those for the others," McCoy shouted out after him.

"I don't think so," Kirk replied, the doors closing behind him.

McCoy looked at the box and kicked it to the side. The man behind the transporter, glanced at him warily like a snake that might bite.

"Who is coming to pick these up?" he asked the stranger.

The man did not answer.

"Tell me or I'll try these new ones out on you first. Even before Kirk gets his chance," McCoy tried to sound intimidating.

The man behind the transporter looked unsure.

"I don't know, sir."

"Is it Sulu?"

"It may be."

If it had been Spock, McCoy had been planning on staying, but since it was not the Vulcan, he had no desire to stay.

Out in the corridor, security officers followed some of the crew. You could tell a person's importance onboard the Enterprise by the entourage they brought with them. The higher in rank the more goons followed them, blue-suited men who were only pleased to protect when the profit was right and the power that it brought with them increased. They were only apt to betray the person they had sworn to protect if they could move up on the food chain. They collected people to defend like past humans had collected those old baseball cards that McCoy had once seen on display on Earth in museums.

Kirk had also viewed the multitude of new security with great pleasure, knowing that it was in large part to himself that it had formed. His enemies were still diappearing just as frequently, however. Whatever he had found, thanks to Nan, it was very useful for erasing even security officers. And once they were gone they were never heard from again and forgotten just as easily. Another name on the ever growing list of Kirk's casualties. The Captain looked at the long parade of security officers with satisfied eyes.

And no matter how long the length, no matter how skilled the officer, people still kept on vanishing and they were still helpless to do anything about it.

Even Spock had acquired a large line of men around him. It seemed odd to McCoy that the Vulcan did not realize that it was incredibly illogical to have so many when it didn't affect the usual fate of Captian James T. Kirk's enemies. McCoy, however, figured out for himself what argument Spock would take. The man would know that no threat would appear from Kirk unless he acted against him. A move that seemed improbable. Spock did not desire the Captaincy, never had. It was the others beneath him who coveted his position, and being so close to becoming a Captain, who proved the largest threat. These crew members were unblessed with the ability to harm him in any means as mysterious at Kirk had found. They would still use brute force and violence.

McCoy did not have one officer to protect himself. The offer for one had never been made to him, from Kirk or anyone else, and so he had never felt the need or compulsion to look for one himself. The Doctor felt naked, offering an exposed back for anyone to plunge a knife into and twist but he still had not asked for any protection.

It was punishement for his cowardice he knew.

The price he paid for being silent and scared, knowing slightly about what was happening, and displeased with the Empire but still living within it's safety, afraid to say a word incase he disappeared as well.

While McCoy's vulnerability went for the large part unnoticed by most of the Enterprise crew it did not escape Spock's careful and viligent eye. He was usually in the man's company.

The First Officer felt compelled to ask the Captain about it soon thereafter.

Kirk just smiled his usual confident grin. "You know I never noticed?"

"I fail to see how you could not," Spock theorized. "You are an observant man."

"I guess, old Sawbones just seems to like not being followed. Maybe he's up to something he doesn't want anyone to know," the Captain theorized.

Spock frowned. "The chances of that are highly, unlikely. From what I know of the Doctor he does not seem like the type of man who would be 'up to something' in the way you suggest."

Kirk leaned forward in his chair. "And what exactly have you 'seen' of the man?"

Spock refused to answer and Kirk grew tired of waiting for a reply. "He's never asked for one that I can recall. He seems to have a deathwish I suppose."

"And you have never offered one?"

"No," Kirk said. "Do you think that I would disregard a man's personal and ethical choices let alone his privacy?"

The words were spoken with boldness and confidence. Still Spock knew they were completely false.

"Besides… I don't think his job is that desired do you? I don't think that McCoy can actually help too many people. When someone sets it in their mind to… let's say: send someone to an early retirement. They don't leave them in too much of a shape to save do they?"

"Experience as taught you well, Captain."

"Yes it has."

"Still do you think that there is another physician in the Empire that would serve you as well? McCoy has been very loyal."

Kirk scrutinized his first officer's face. "Yes. He appears to be. From what I've seen. Then again… You seem to know him better even than I: a man who has known him for years before you even knew the man existed! So you vouch for his loyalty to me?"

"He seems to be able to follow your orders," Spock carefully answered.

Kirk paused a moment before smiling. "That's good enough. For the moment. Did you get your new agonizer?"

"Yes."

"Where do you keep them anyway? You only ever seem to use someone elses? Guilt?"

"No. I don't see the need to use my own when I can use one more easily available."

"That's good enough too, I guess."

"I take it you have yours?"

"First in line," Kirk said joyfully. "They're much improved over the last shipment, let me tell you."

"If you say," Spock said, a thought forming in his intelligent mind.

Having finished the orders of the Empire, the Enterprise's Captain, walked towards his quarters. The corridors were vacant accept for the few personal guards he brought with him. With the new agonizers now handed out, Kirk saw no sense on inspiring any anxious crew member with the opportunity to try one out on him.

Halfway to his quarters, desiring a private meal, Kirk saw the woman walking towards him. She was nothing less than stunning.

She also apparently was aware of it. Walking towards him with a sultry and arrogant stride, matching his own for pure confidence, her hair was dark and full, lying on her shoulders. She was not angelic. She was earthy and sensuous. Not his usual favourite type, and not possessing a challenge, she was irresistible all the same.

The Captain did not speak a word, only placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her progress down the hallway. Kirk had the distint impression that she would have only stopped for him or someone equal or above his own ranking.

"Yes?" the woman said.

"You're new here aren't you?" Kirk asked.

She nodded.

"I make it my business, to match every face, especially one as beautiful as your's, with a name. It makes seduction easier since I'm a man of precious little time."

"Somehow, Captain Kirk," the woman breathed, "You strike me as a man who finds the time for pleasure quite easily."

Kirk's smile broadened. "Touche."

"My name is Marlena."

"And tell me Marlena… are you free tonight?"

She gave him a deep look, and then broke free from his hold. "Not tonight. Try tomorrow."

Kirk watched her as she left, feeling that, if he had not met his match, he had at least met a very strong and worthwhile distraction.

McCoy could not shake the feeling that he was being followed. Whenever he passed through a corridor he heard footsteps following him and when he looked behind him he repeatedly saw a man of muscular build some paces behind him. His heartbeat was racing. Several times when he had left the Sickbay he had found the same man waiting someplace close.

The worst thing about the whole situation was that the man wasn't even veiled about it. He seemed to consider following the Doctor as a matter not requiring any illusion. For one frightening moment, McCoy felt the growing fear that his time had come and that someone had sent their goon after him.

The thought was soon silenced with the realization that if that was the case he would be dead by now. Deciding to sleep on it, McCoy was further disturbed to leave his room in the morning and find the man standing watch outside.

Knowing there was only one man he could talk to, not trusting Sulu at all, McCoy found himself on the bridge. Kirk was not there, blessedly, Spock was sitting in the Captain's chair while the man was absent.

McCoy walked up to the Vulcan, casting several glances behind himself and at the people on the bridge.

"Can I talk to you, Spock?" McCoy asked, leaning towards the man.

"You already did, Doctor."

"I think I'm being followed," the human said and looked behind him.

"Yes, Doctor you are correct," Spock calmly stated.

"What?" McCoy cried, winning a few interested glances from the spare crew members and a outright snicker from Chekov.

"You are being followed."

"And why do you know this but I don't?"

"The answer is simple, Doctor. I sent the man to guard you. Apparently he is not being as secretive as I instructed him to be. I will have to correct him."

"Why?" McCoy asked.

"I have noticed that you have not taken the liberty to hire a security team to protect yourself. It is an unwise decision. To remedy the situation, I believed it best to tell one of my men to do it for you."

"I don't need your charity!" McCoy said, bristling under a sudden feeling of shame.

"It is not charity. Consider it to be more of a 'gift'. Or just a move to secure your presence onboard the Enterprise. You are the finest Doctor in the Empire. I would feel better that you stay on the ship and look after Captain Kirk's welfare."

"A gift from you?"

"Yes. Now Doctor, I think it is best you return to the Sickbay."

McCoy was silent. He looked at the silent impassive face of the Vulcan. Quickly he walked away, feeling that he was a traitor to his relationship with the First Officer not to argue or say something sarcastic in reply, yet not knowing what to say. To the Doctor, the care from Spock, this unknown gift, was as unexpected as a smile would be on the man's face. It was a surprisingly warming thought, and McCoy could not bring to his mind, one insult or rebuke, at least not one that he felt safe saying to the other man.

There was a secret motivation that had caused Spock to give the gift of security to McCoy. The Vulcan contemplated it alone in his darkened room, the light off because they had begun to irritate him and remind him all too much of the fiery planet where he had been born.

Soon, a time would come where he would need to relieve the guards around himself. They would be suspicious and notice that their employer was changing, his reserve breaking, serenity turning to violence. Spock knew he would need to dismiss them temporarily before such a change occured.

And while this would happen, Spock understood how vulnerable he would be and in need of help from someone who could be trusted. The very fact that McCoy was overly sentimental, a fact he still considered to be a fault when it came to the Doctor, would become the greatest asset to him, Spock realized. When that time came it would be easier if McCoy was there.

Knowing, the inevitabilty of Pon Farr, Spock prayed that having placed himself on the Enterprise he would bring no further shame to the planet Vulcan and its people.