Bones assumed they'd been there for days, but he couldn't be sure.
He'd had a lot of time to think, with Kirk fading in and out of consciousness. At this point, he was mostly out, which was worrying, but there was little more the doctor could do for his captain. He'd check his vitals when he was asleep, do whatever he could to make the man feel comfortable when he was awake. It was getting rough for Kirk. Not that it hadn't been before, but some of the time he wasn't at all lucid, fighting off creatures that weren't there. There had been a terribly upsetting moment when he'd thought he was dying again. That had been heart breaking to watch, because all he wanted was to see Spock, Spock would save him. Over and over Bones had assured him that Spock was on his way, all the while wondering where the bastard was.
The only thing Bones could come up with was that Spock was being forced to stand down, which wouldn't be at all surprising. The Federation had been known to make unreasonable demands of it's ships when they thought the best course of action was to wait for backup. No normal human being could stand around and wait while they had friends in danger. But if there was a ship nearby to enforce that rule...
The only thing Bones could come up with was they were being forcibly detained. Because otherwise there was no excuse for leaving Kirk to suffer like this.
No one had done anything to Leonard, which seemed strange. There were two perfectly good test subjects in the room, why only use one? Not that he wanted to deal with what Kirk was, but there was only so much a person could take before...
As if to contest that, Kirk groaned and opened his eyes. It was a process, a difficult one, and he didn't even bother trying to sit up anymore. They both knew it would make him dizzy, causing the permanent headache to throb him into unconsciousness again. Besides, the nausea had already made him lose his stomach once, and there wasn't enough food he could eat for him to be losing it.
"Any changes?"
"Not that I can tell." Snark had left the captain after the headache had really set in. It was painful for him to speak at all, and the extra verbiage necessary to make snarky remarks was too much. Bones was surprised to find that he missed it.
"Well, that's something at least." It wasn't really. Something would be Kirk feeling better, but at least it wasn't worse. It could be worse. It could be worse. He had to keep reminding himself.
"Spock better get his ass here soon." Kirk was quiet, serious. Bones frowned at his friend and sighed.
"You'll just have to hold out until he does."
There was silence, and Bones thought Kirk had fallen asleep again. But when he glanced over, the captain was staring at the ceiling, only the slightest of frowns creasing his forehead. Deep in thought, it seemed, or deep in ignoring the pain. Whichever was the case, Bones knew better than to disturb him.
It was with a groan that Bones rose as he heard the telltale signs of the creatures coming to get Kirk for one thing or another. He placed himself between the door and the captain, as he always did, even though it had yet to make a difference to them. They just threw him aside like a rag doll and did what they were planning anyway.
"Bones... just move." Kirk was so resigned, but still trying to be the protective captain. Even though he couldn't do anything for himself, he still tried to protect his crew. Which was exactly why Bones would never listen.
The door opened, and Leonard braced himself for the impact that always came shortly after. But instead, he felt their hands grip his arms and force them behind his back. Cold shackles pressed into his wrists, and before he knew what was happening he was being dragged from the room.
"Let me go, you... you... he needs me, don't you see that? If you're going to keep prodding and poking him he needs me to keep him alive, he needs me to-"
Kirk lost all contact with the doctor as the door closed and left him completely alone.
With a sigh, he thanked whatever powers might be. Bones wouldn't have to watch him die. That was a blessing, at least.
Three days had passed, and Spock was no closer to finding the doctor and the captain than he had been when they'd first arrived.
They'd watched the humans go about their work, doing things that weren't so unusual for a simple colony like this seemed to be; taking care of livestock, tending gardens and farms, collecting wood for fires and repairs. If not for the shackles and the morning assemblies, Spock would have assumed they were just a normal colony, with no connection to the creatures who had presumably kidnapped and were slowly killing friends.
Of course, he told the humans who formed his ground team that they were just gathering all of the information they would need to make a successful rescue. It helped with their morale, and it wouldn't do to have them questioning their leader when the stakes were so high. It would just make their eventual rescue more difficult. Catlow and Henley seemed to believe him, and went about following his orders as if he was always in charge. Carpenter was harder to convince, it seemed, and she gave him disbelieving looks every time he assured the other two that they were doing something worthwhile. But she never said anything, which was more than he could ask.
It wasn't until they were sitting just behind a rock outcropping, watching the humans meander around with livestock, while Catlow and Henley were off keeping tabs on the farming community that she finally sighed, heavily and clearly annoyed.
"Did you have something to say, ensign Carpenter?" Spocks voice was neutral, sounding for all the world like a pure Vulcan.
"No sir. Not unless you include questioning everything that your commanding officer is doing something to say."
She had certainly picked up the captain's attitude, which was almost a comfort to him. Almost.
"Pardon me, ensign?"
"You heard me. We aren't gathering necessary intelligence, we're stalling until you come up with something to do. And unless you get to it soon, there won't be any reason to have intel. Either we'll be locked up on some Federation ship or the captain and Dr. McCoy will be dead. Or both. I'm tired of wasting our time."
Spock just stared at the woman for a moment before he nodded. "I'm aware. But if you have a plan that includes finding the captain and no one dying, I am more than willing to hear it. Otherwise, we'll keep 'gathering intel' until we have one."
Her lips pressed together in an obvious display of anger before she nodded. She looked back at the humans, although it was clear her mind wasn't on what she was seeing any longer. But so long as she didn't cause dissent among the other two members, they would be fine.
Unless he never found the captain. Unless he got them all killed. Unless they were caught by the Federation and forced to resign their posts. Really, he had no guarantee that anything would be fine.
"Is that...?"
"What. Ensign Carpenter?"
"Is that Dr. McCoy?"
Spock felt his eyebrows lift an infinitesimal amount as he turned to look. And he was surprised to see that she was correct, the doctor was shuffling along with the other humans. But his eyes were much wider, and he seemed unwilling even as he followed. They were switching groups, something that they'd grown accustomed to in their days of observation. It seemed the took shifts working and resting, so they could go for longer. But Leonard McCoy hadn't been in this group before.
"We have to do something-"
Spock put a hand on the eager ensign's shoulder to stop her from running towards one of the men they'd been searching for. "We must wait until the shift changes, or there may be trouble. We are still unsure what will happen if the shackles are activated."
She was tense for another moment before she drooped, accepting what he said as truth. That was probably one of Spock's favorite things about this woman – her ability to understand logic, even if she didn't always come up with it on her own.
It was the longest they'd ever had to wait, it seemed, although it couldn't have been more than a few hours. When the alert came that the shift was changing, they watched Bones as he shuffled with the rest of them towards a shaded area where food and drink were stored. He sat on the edge, looking uncomfortable and ready to run at the slightest provocation.
"You must go to him." Spock hated to put the responsibility on the ensign, but he had no other choice. As a Vulcan, he would draw more attention to himself than another human would. She understood that, it seemed, because she only nodded and crept to where the doctor was seated. When she came to open area, she held herself in much the same way the slaves did, with shuffling steps and a bowed head. No one spared her a second glance, and soon she was sitting beside the doctor, whispering to him without looking at him. Spock watched as the conversation seemed to grow heated, as it was wont to do with the doctor. It was a little while longer before Carpenter stood, leaving the doctor behind as she slowly made her way back to Spock.
"What did the doctor say?" It was all he could do to keep that sentence calm.
"The shackle won't let him leave the designated areas, and if he shows any sign of disobedience he'll be out cold. He's stuck until we can get that off of him."
"And the captain?"
She was quiet for a moment, clearly thinking of the correct way to explain it to the Vulcan. "The doctor has been separated from him, but... it seems he wasn't doing well. Very sick, Dr. McCoy said, and getting worse. He might not even be alive still."
That news hit worse than a blow ever could, but Spock only let a moment of weakness escape before he nodded. "Did he say where they were keeping Kirk?"
"Somewhere inside the cliff. He couldn't give me much detail, but it seems they've hollowed it out, created another colony inside for the natives."
"Then we must figure out how to get inside." Which was very easy to say, but he had no idea how to go about doing that.
"They bring some of the humans inside at night – couldn't we just send someone in with them?"
"It would be dangerous."
"It's dangerous to let the captain sit dying alone while we try to come up with something better." She eyed Spock, an eyebrow lifted, daring him to contest her argument.
Spock wouldn't let one of the others go inside, so he'd allowed himself to be disguised before blending with the group of humans that was being shepherded into a giant door in the red stone cliff. A hat Bones had managed to slip them covered his pointed ears and harshly angled brows, and a blanket they'd discovered abandoned covered what they could of his uniform pants. He'd completely stripped himself of his shirt, because there was no real way to hide the bright blue among the quieter, muted colors of the human slaves.
Bones shuffled beside him, head down as he cursed under his breath. He'd said many times that he thought this was a stupid plan, that they'd be better waiting than getting killed, but he couldn't argue about the captain needing help as soon as possible. So he walked next to Spock and kept his opinions mostly to himself.
They were coming to the door when Spock noticed that they were scanning each person coming in, both with eyes and with some kind of device that read the ankle shackles. For a moment, his mind raced, trying to determine the best course of action. And when nothing immediately came to mind, he found he must rely on his instincts alone.
The scanner started beeping when he came close, and it took them seconds to realize that Spock didn't belong with the human sheep they were herding. It took seconds more for Spock to stun both of the creatures and take off inside, racing down the passageways without regard for the men and women he knocked over or the direction he needed to go. None of that mattered, not now that he was inside. So long as he could get inside, he could find the captain.
So he dashed through the hallways in search of a place to hide and plan his next move.