From the look on the man's face Kirk could tell he had not been told by the crew about those times. Even if he had looked at Officer Walker's file there would be no mention of those as most of them were done without full permission. They had been life-threatening to senior crew and Walker had mislead the transport operator as to having authority to beam down. Kirk knew how many as did Spock, Scott, briefly Kirk closed his eyes and shook his head, hell, yet again the whole bridge crew knew.

"I was not told of any, Sir."

"And yet you called him a junior officer without finding that out?"

"As I said, Sir, I was not told of any and I do have proven experience of being part of a landing party."

"Did you ask?"

"I asked how many landing parties he had been on. They are what is important."

"Have you never encountered situations where emergency beam downs are not just important but vital?"

"No, Sir I have never encountered such situations. I have heard of them, Sir, and know how risky and dangerous they can be but only highly trained specialists go on them, not regular officers like Officer Walker was."

For a moment Kirk was silent and just looked at the man. "Have, have you ever been in a situation where an emergency beam up was necessary for the landing party?"

"No, Sir. I have never been on a mission where we did not control the situation."

"You are aware that there will be a time what that will happen?"

"Yes, I am fully aware, Sir, and I will be prepared for such an eventuality. I have had the training required."

"I would like to hope so." Kirk wanted to point out that even cadets had basic training in emergencies with landing parties. Even cadets had the training but too often training was not enough as there are random factors not taken into account. Momentarily he smiled as he was aware of how much his thinking was becoming like Spock. "Now, back to recent events. You did not mention sending Officer Walker after Mister Spock."

The sudden but slight change in how he was sitting let Kirk know that was another thing Ganner realized he had not mentioned. It was almost as though the man had been unaware of the fact.

"Mister Spock must have asked him to follow him."

For just a moment Kirk was tempted to say that was highly unlikely but then stopped as he wondered what else would have made Walker go after him. "If he had even the wildest of suspicions that something was not right, he would find out why and try to make it right." But what would Walker have suspected as not right? "Yes, that must have been it."

"I do not mean to seem unfeeling, Sir, but have you thought any more about the First Officer situation? I mean the crew needs to know that there is an experienced officer there."

"I have thought about it, Officer Ganner. You are right about the crew needing to know that there is an experienced officer in that role. In fact I will be addressing the crew in a few hours about that."

"Might I ask what you have decided?"

"You, and the rest of the crew, will find out at the same time. Dismissed."

As Ganner left Kirk was aware of all the doubts he had about the man. The most concerning doubt was connected to McCoy's doubts about the man. There was something unusual about the man and it was more than just his wanting to be promoted, it was more than just his attitude towards other officers, it was that aura of entitlement.

Doctor McCoy walked back into Sickbay and over to the bed that Officer Walker lay on and for a moment just rested his hand on Walker's left hand, unware of the fact that he was not alone in looking at Walker nor that, by instinct and training, he was feeling for, and found, a strong and steady pulse. "I'm gonna keep you like this for thirty standard hours, Angus. By then your systems should be better equipped to deal with me taking the tubes out. Now you and Spock are over the worst I will leave M'Benga on duty with you two while I get some sleep. I will look on your records and see what you might like as your first semi solid food. From memory it is a strawberry and lime thick milkshake with linseed and shaved almonds. I remember watching you drink four of them in a row after you saved Jim once when we had been sure he was gone. You slept for a long time after that because you were exhausted and because I had put something extra in the last two. This time you will sleep because I have given you some heave sedation. You just rest."

Spock had lain with his eyes fractionally open and had watched McCoy's manner around Walker, the way he had placed his hand on Walker's in a way he could feel the pulse, the way his mouth relaxed before he looked up at the registers and nodded his satisfaction. He had heard what McCoy had said to the sedated form and had closed his eyes and smiled to himself. There was no crewman who was safe from McCoy once they were in his kingdom known officially as Sickbay. There was possibly no other place on the ship where a sentient being would be better cared for, safer, and yet also harangued if they dared go against McCoy's directives which were always for that being well being. Slowly Spock let his body yield to the mind rules and slid back into a light healing trance.

James Kirk was not surprised when his Chief Medical Officer walked into his cabin with a covered tray. "And what to I owe this visit to?" he asked as McCoy set down the tray and uncovered a bottle of old Earth bourbon.

McCoy raised his glass as he handed one to Kirk, "To one helluva resilient patient. I just looked in on Spock and Walker and I will be able to remove the tubes in thirty hours. He will then be at the maximum recommended time for warming rehydration. I had first been worried that it might have taken a second treatment, I could have taken him off it for a day but only a very small percentage of those who have had to have a second treatment have survived. All the registers indicate what I suspect, that I can safely take them out then." They clinked their glasses and McCoy nodded, "I can take them out but he will have to remain a guest in my rooms till I am certain he can manage on his own, that he will not have any recurrences of digestive or repertory trouble and that he can stand and move unaided. Whatever was in that water with them a bit got into him and played havoc with mainly his digestive system as well as giving him a mild rash all over his back were he was clearly struck by heavy items judging from the bruising"

For a moment Kirk looked at him, "Could Blarnock have gotten into Spock the same way? Their medical team dumped medications down the other end of the beach, the region they were in."

McCoy rubbed his chin, "Well, that could explain it. I will have to give all those laceration sites on Spock a thorough examination. Have to see if there are any tell-tale signs of where the packs would have struck him. The wave would have had the force needed to inject the packs. Walker had faint traces of harmless bacteria in iron based blood in his systems that would have come from polluted water so it is possible, though what Walker has would have been swallowed. Blarnock has to be injected but if there was packs there and they got in the water it is possible that that is how Spock got injected with it. I will check on that."

"You said packs, Bones."

"From what I could judge from the concentration I found in Spock's blood and from how the packs are stored he would have been hit by both packs." the blue eyes looked into him and Kirk knew the truth before McCoy said it, "He should have died, Jim. That stuff Walker gave him somehow counteracted it, possibly by stimulating that part of the Vulcan brain that controls muscles for all I know. Whatever it did it, it is the only thing that I know of that prevented that amount of Blarnock from killing Spock. I'll go check those lacerations and find where it got into him. Maybe even how. If those pack had been just discarded like that and were in that water with them," McCoy shook his head, "It is possible. I'll let you know if I discover anything, tomorrow. Right now I want you to get some sleep. Soon as I've check Spock over I'll go get seven hours sleep, I really cannot remember when I last did get a few hours of good sleep."

"I am about to do that too, Bones. I have a feeling that when we wake up we are going to a very interesting time.