"It appears, doctor, that our emotionally compromised captain remains quite resourceful. He used the commotion to his advantage and vanished from the area."
McCoy's hand slipped on the tricorder. He jerked his head away from the woman at Spock's terse statement. If that was true, McCoy swore he would strangle Jim. "Like gone and you can't find him? Like, you didn't manage to send him back to the Enterprise where he should be but rather he is galavanting solo around the palace gone? As in not here and tripping over his own two feet exhausted and sick gone?
"Indeed, doctor. I observed him eyeing the various exits as we spoke. After Dr. Jahnas collapsed, I noted his disappearance and searched the hallway but was unable to locate him. Neither did he respond to my comm." Spock set darkened eyes upon McCoy's patient, his tone cool and detached. "This distraction was quite timely, Dr. Jahnas."
Score one for the Vulcan. McCoy scowled at the device in his hand then locked eyes with his "patient" lounging on the chaise.
"There's not a single thing wrong with you, is there?" The tricorder reinforced Spock's statement. Aleyah's innocent act had almost fooled him, and damn if Spock figured it out before he did.
"There isn't, Dr. McCoy?" Her hand lightly massaged her forehead in a circular motion, words dripping too sweetly from her voice.
"You tell me." McCoy gritted his teeth. Involving Dr. Jahnas? Of all the idiotic things Jim could do - again.
"Dr. Jahnas, we will address your involvement in this incident later. I have a matter more pressing which demands my immediate attention."
"I am saddened for Captain Kirk, seeing how he could not trust either of his best friends," Aleyah looked at her hands, speaking in a low tone.
"We are more concerned for his well-being-"
"And he's acting in the best interest of his crew." She lifted her chin. "We all know that he will go to any length to do what he believes to be right, and he had to bypass the both of you to get-"
"That is enough, Dr. Jahnas," Spock said with a low growl. "You are behaving in an insubordinate manner, and I wish to know why you feigned distress."
"He wanted to conduct a discrete unofficial investigation and asked me to create a diversion after the banquet ended to cover his exit."
"I must speak with Prince Lequa. In my brief absence, it would serve you well to inform Dr. McCoy of any other vital information you have concerning Captain Kirk's whereabouts, Dr. Jahnas."
Spock turned on his heel to update the prince, leaving the confined area that the Re'an members had provided them for privacy.
McCoy raised an eyebrow and waited. Aleyah huffed a sigh, looking most resigned. "I should also tell you that he's specifically looking for the petite Re'an warrior. Soona is her name."
"Soona was taken to the facility for rehabilitation," McCoy muttered under his breath.
"The captain insists that he saw her this afternoon. Here."
McCoy had no doubt Jim saw her, but whether it was real or not was a different question. "You don't understand the situation, Dr. Jahnas. He had no business involving you."
Aleyah's eyes sparked with anger. "I made my own decision to help him, and I think I may understand more than you realize, Dr. McCoy."
"What do you mean?"
Aleyah sat up on the chaise, flipping her hair behind her shoulders. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
Haven't you already? McCoy scowled, but nodded.
"Gaila wasn't always tight-lipped regarding Kirk, and I haven't been oblivious to the changes in his behavior. How could you abandon him when he needed you most?"
McCoy's head dropped into his hands. If only this could be a bad, bad dream.
"Dr. McCoy." Spock's voice came from behind. Princess Eoksa stood with him.
"Yes, Spock." McCoy scowled.
"It has been brought to my attention that Princess Eoksa was already concerned about our captain. Combined with this recent incident, a search has commenced."
McCoy's heart sank. With that simple declaration, all the diplomacy that they'd worked so hard to achieve was voided. He couldn't help but curse himself for allowing Jim to return to Re'an in such a vulnerable and mentally unstable condition. It was completely his fault and had been from the beginning. No one else was to blame.
"As I informed the commander, doctor," the princess took a tremulous breath, "Captain Kirk experienced distress earlier near our gardens. Your team may start their search there, if you'd like."
Once he escaped from under the decisive and watchful eye of his first officer, Jim's initial action was to find a disguise. He confiscated one of the white hooded robes he observed hanging very conveniently in the hallway outside the banquet room. Appropriately dressed, he inched down one of the many palace hallways. Distracted and fatigued, he still felt compelled to prove that he wasn't going crazy. He dragged his stubborn body for another ten yards before stopping yet again to rest. He frowned, mulling over one of the mysteries of Re'an V and specifically everything he understood about the image on the missile.
Aleyah's research revealed that it wasn't merely a creature pictured on the missile, but two Re'an beings. They now determined that one was performing a mind meld on the other and that the seated one had a snake around his shoulders. The snake intrigued Jim as it was similar to the one which had wrapped him. He leaned heavily against the wall, still unable to determine why the image felt so important to him. It was meaningful to the Re'an beings, that much he knew, but they never discussed their mind melds with outsiders. That in and of itself was a mystery. He breathed deeply in attempt to gather strength to continue. Having ignored his fatigue for weeks, his reserves were now gone, adrenaline lacking.
In hindsight, he wasn't surprised that his observational skills were rather diminished.
"Soona." Jim tilted his head and peered intently at her. Hoping that his steady gaze would disguise his surprise at seeing the Re'an warrior standing before him, he stated, "You are here."
She's real. This was real. It had to be. Her scent, a strangely comforting mixture of sweat and snake, wafted towards him as he edged nearer. Her chest rose and fell heavily, just like his. Several strands of her hair were lifted gently by the draft sneaking past them. Her eyes were hued and shaped like every other Re'an's eyes, but something about them was different. So close to her now, he inspected the wrinkled, faintly red skin tissue around the edges of her eyes. His skin prickled.
"You are searching for something," she said evenly. "All you need to do is ask."
"I seek the truth. You committed a crime and were charged by Prince Lequa. Why are you here?"
"I did no wrong."
"You kidnapped innocent children."
"I am a hunter for my people."
"A hunter of what?"
"Resources," she shrugged. "What we need to live."
"You speak as if-"
"We do what we must to survive, for the benefit of the majority. It's a natural process here."
A wave of nausea billowed. Just like Tarsus. He clenched his jaw, his nails digging into the palms of his tightly fisted hands to fight the memories.
"That upsets you," she said matter-of-factly. "It is just like he said. How curious. It doesn't have to be that way."
Confused, Jim tripped aimlessly over all she said - what was curious? being upset? surviving? - so he asked the question that he wanted to ask in the first place. "How could endangering children be acceptable amongst a peaceful people?"
She shifted into a defensive stance. "They were never endangered," she hissed before twisting around and fleeing through an archway. As the snake scent drifted away, Jim didn't think twice before following.
Spock ordered the security team to search the palace for the missing captain alongside the Re'an guards while he and the away team returned to the site which had triggered Jim's earlier agitation. Hoping to uncover some clue to Jim's behavior, Spock followed Prince Lequa and the two guards into their sacred room. Sulu, Dr. Jahnas, and Uhura accompanied them as well. Only McCoy waited outside the vined doors, wishing he would simply spy Jim in the corridor. Where was he, if not here? If Jim was indeed so curious, he would have reached this location before the team.
Feeling useless, McCoy lingered as long as he could. He was the last one inside - and the first to see the doors being slammed shut behind them.
"Son of a bitch," McCoy snarled at Lequa. "What the hell is this? Where the hell is Jim?"
McCoy lunged for the prince, unmindful of the spears the guards withdrew from their cloaks.
"I would step away," Lequa's frigid, lyrical voice halted McCoy's attack. The spears paused mere inches away from McCoy's chest as Spock and Sulu restrained him. With great difficulty, the doctor clenched his hands but stepped back. "You shall see your captain, I promise. As long as you cooperate."
"I demand that you release us." Spock said.
"I fear I cannot." Prince Lequa strolled towards the other end of the room, stopping after several meters. "Your captain will want to see our treasured display of animals. I must apologize to him once he arrives. We postponed it long enough, but that is not all our fault. We completely expected your captain to see the animals the very night my children were kidnapped. However, well...your captain behaved contrary to what we expected."
"Here? The creatures are here?" McCoy looked at Lequa and raised his voice in disbelief.
Lequa pressed a hidden button on the floor with his foot. "Of course. I suggest that you do not make any sudden movements. There are creatures you have not studied. Some have been hidden from you until now, and some of those are temperamental and most poisonous. Even...deadly."
The floor shifted, the illusion of a white, spartan room disappearing into a mass of towering green and brown. The walls swirled once around them, as creatures of feather and scales in a whirl of colors and crescendo of cries seemingly appeared out of thin air. It would be a magnificent display if not for the claustrophobia McCoy suddenly experienced and the dread carving itself deep in the pit of his stomach.
Jim had been right. Jim had been right - and McCoy had failed him yet another time. Jim had been right - and now their captain was alone.
"Where is our captain?" Spock asked evenly.
"He is on his way providing Soona has done her job correctly."
"Soona?" Aleyah said with alarm. "But she's..."
"...a renegade," Spock finished, the hushed anger in his eyes more frightening than any wild rage.
"Yes," Lequa stated. "She has been called that in the past. She is no more a renegade than you or I."
"Soona kidnapped your children." Spock enunciated each syllable.
Lequa otherwise occupied, McCoy glanced sideways at Uhura, hoping that she'd been able to somehow send a signal to the Enterprise. She pursed her lips in response. Sulu's hands clenched by his side, empty without his phaser. McCoy's worry stirred. He'd not even noticed that Sulu had been disarmed as well as Spock.
"Ah, yes. So she did," Lequa said, his affirmation too casual and failing to convince McCoy that the prince even cared.
"What reasonable explanation could you possibly provide for allowing your children's kidnapper-" A guard pressed his spear against McCoy's side as a warning, silencing him.
Lequa waved a hand. "No more questions. The time has come and now...Unfortunately for you and your team, I imagine the lieutenant was unable to establish a connection." The prince's voice faded as a predatorial grin spread across his face.
"Imprisoning us here and delaying our return to the Enterprise will as effectively communicate our situation as Lieutenant Uhura's transmission would have done," Spock challenged.
Lequa shrugged and strode to an apparent path through the depths of overgrowth. "Our shields are raised and your transporter is inoperational - and will remain that way until we get what we need."
"And what is that?" McCoy growled, refusing to budge as the guards' spears nudged them along towards the snakes. No way in hell was he going to make friends with these poisonous creatures.
"Dr. McCoy, to all who see us, we are a peaceful race but we require resources to remain that way. You would not understand, but those resources are vital to our way life and are not available here any more. It has, unfortunately, become precarious to live here and so quickly after our return, too."
Return? The Re'an had been living on this planet for only two decades. McCoy glanced at Spock, wishing immediately that he hadn't. Dread filled the Vulcan's face; he knew something that the doctor did not.
"Fortunately, the timely arrival of someone with the necessary resources will help us address that problem. The ones who help us must remain with us, and it appears that in this particular case that this one will acclimate himself to our ways without complication." Lequa, sounding altogether too pleased with himself, sent them a smile just as smug.
Thick, thorny vines obstructed their view of the locked doors behind them and escape through the foliage was futile with poisonous snakes barring the way. McCoy was almost certain he didn't want to confirm his guess of "who" had arrived. But he swallowed and dared to ask the question reflected in the eyes of his team, "And who might that be?"
"Your captain."
"And we are the bait," Sulu muttered.
"This is the second time you have attempted to ensnare him. The kidnapping was staged. You anticpated him entering this room at that time." Spock arched an eyebrow.
"So it would seem." The prince's bored tone stirred the anger within McCoy. "So it would seem."
McCoy glared in contempt. No. No, you can't take Jim from us. No. With a growl and all of the despair that losing his friend the past weeks had given him, he tore away from Spock's lightning reflexes. "No!"
In a blinding rage, he grabbed the spear with his hand, pushing it away and ignoring the prompt slice of his palm. Fueled by his emotional heartache, he punched the first guard, who fell to the floor. Ready again, he extended his other arm but Spock was already there, bruising McCoy's arms as he restrained him.
"Dr. McCoy," Spock commanded brusquely, "Stand down. It is not the time to fight."
McCoy was dragged back, stunned at himself that he'd lost control. Jim wouldn't have wanted him to do that. It had been a foolish, foolish move.
"I would listen to the commander if I were you, doctor." Lequa pointed a phaser at Uhura. "Not only am I unafraid to use this weapon, but also your captain's life is at stake. The guards outside this room have orders to kill him if you harm us and do not cooperate. It would be a great loss for us but your cooperation is necessary."
Another growl escaped from McCoy but Lequa, unperturbed by the additional outburst, motioned to the creatures on the ground with his other hand. The snakes McCoy had tried to avoid slithered closer. Spock released his hold on the doctor and stepped in front of Uhura as more creatures joined in the promenade. McCoy raised his hand to wipe his forehead. Blood streaked down his hand. Blinking in shock that he'd ignored such a wound, he took off his command shirt, leaving the black underneath, and pressed it against his sliced palm. His breathing remained erratic as his mind filled with a hundred scenarios of Jim falling right into the Re'an prince's deceitful hands.
"Why are you doing this?" Spock asked quietly.
"Our lives here are much like that of an hourglass. Tip it over and we have only that much time left before peace is vanished and violence enters the minds of our people. They will act upon that violence. It will be impossible to subdue them. Normally, mere memories of others' anguished pasts dispel that evil urge. We depend on resources and sometimes, we admit to stripping too much away- making it impossible for us to return the resource." Lequa paused. "That is the reason why we left earlier. It was becoming noticeable to those species around us. They were suspicious. We take, but we cannot give back what we take. So we returned to our former home, but alas, we cannot find species here with the resources we need either. Until you arrived."
"You are touch telepaths. The symbol on the missile represents this, one's hands resting on another's forehead. You require the memories that others have to keep your species docile. Memory is your resource." Spock paused. "People are your resource."
McCoy felt his face drain of color and a tingling sensation running from his wounded hand and up his arm. He locked his legs, refusing to keel over.
"But you are only capable of touch telepathic abilities between members your own species," Spock continued. "How will you obtain the captain's memories?"
"Yes, as you already know, we are touch telepaths. Our most valuable sacred process, finding and melding with one who has the memories we need, is an ancient ritual. We have a chosen one who is the only one capable of seeking out such memories in another species. And once he melds with the memory resource, our hold on the being is even stronger. Our chosen one will then share those memories with all of us and our planet will be at peace once more." Lequa sighed and shook his head. McCoy blinked, the world encircling him in slow motion. "As long as that missile was in your hands, I knew it would arouse suspicion, Commander."
"How did you know he has what you need? Perhaps he is not as valuable to you as you believe."
Lequa flinched as if Spock's challenge was a slap to his face. "Our ways may be ancient and mysterious, but they are foolproof."
"He will not cooperate," Spock said with confidence.
McCoy opened his mouth to agree for once with the hobgoblin, but darkness crowded. His face heated, his mind filling with the terrible and horrid thought of Jim stuck on this cursed planet believing his best friend had abandoned him.
"Oh, but I am most certain he will," Lequa said smoothly as the doctor collapsed in a heap, his face mere centimeters from the invading snakes he'd wished to avoid.